It's None Of Your Business
by K-Unit
Summary: When Alex is told him and K-Unit have to either watch tapes or read books about his life he is suddenly faced with a difficult decision. Books or tapes? Alex's life is suddenly turned upside down. Plz R&R
1. Chapter 1

Jack stood in the doorway of the living room tapping her foot, her gaze was fixed on the four men who stood awkwardly in the corner. Only one of them was familiar to her - Ben, Alex had called him. She had no quarrels with him as Alex had informed her that he took a bullet for him. The thick bandages on the man's shoulder told her this was true.

"Thank you." She said reluctantly.

"For what?" He seemed bewildered that she'd even spoken, never mind thanked him.

"Saving Alex. He told me what you did for him." She said.

"I'd do it again if I had to."

"Who is Alex?" A scottish man asked.

"You don't know Alex?" Jack asked in shock.

"Oh they do." Laughed Ben, "However they know him under a different name."

Snake, Eagle and Wolf were confused they did not know anyone called Alex. Well Snake's brother had a son called Alexander but they never shortened his name.

Before Wolf could demand answers the sound of a door slamming reached his ears. With a final glare towards the SAS men, she turned to the hall.

"How was school?"

"Good, Tom says he'll be over soon, his parents are arguing again and he's gonna help me catch up with some school work." The boy in the hall said.

The K-Unit -excluding Ben who was grinning - exchanged mystified glances.

"You have some guests."

"I do? Is it-?"

"No. Its not them Alex, don't worry."

Alex was curious as to who these mysterious guests were.

"Ben?" He asked in shock.

"Hey Alex, how you doing?" Ben said with an easy grin.

"Just glad to be home, you know?"

"I do, hospital food sucks," they both laughed.

"What are they doing here?" Alex asked harshly.

Wolf jerked in shock, Alex had his back to him, he didn't know that he had been noticed.

"We were told to come here, Cub." Snake said, quickly.

"Why?" Alex demanded.

"Mr. Smithers came up with an interesting new thing," Ben began explaining, "using blood he took from you after your operation, he constructed a set of books."

"Books?"

"About you. Or your missions should I say."

"And you're here because..." Alex trailed off in horror.

"Because we are to read the books with you."

"No. No way!" Alex yelled.

"We have tapes too, we can watch them instead."

Alex pondered for a moment, videos could be hastily judged, at least the thoughts in the books could help justify his actions.

He growled at them in anger.

* * *

><p><strong>An<strong>

I don't own Alex rider at all.

So what do you think?

Do you want tapes or books?

If books do you want the book copied out too (in bold)?

Plz review and tell me what you think, even if you think its crap ;)


	2. FUNERAL VOICES

**Funeral Voices**

"Funeral Voices? That sounds kind of morbid." Eagle commented.

"Brilliant way to start." Snake agreed.

**When the doorbell rings at three in the morning, it's never good news.**

"It is if it's a suprise party." Eagle said proudly.

"Who would have a suprise party at three am?"Wolf asked.

"I would."

"Figures." Alex muttered before continuing.

**Alex Rider was woken by the first chime.**

"I knew you were awake." Jack sighed.

**His eyes flickered open but for a moment he stayed completely still in his bed, lying on his back with his head resting on the pillow. He heard a bedroom door and a creak of wood as somebody went downstairs.**

"Somebody?" Jack repeated, insulted that she was not properly named.

"Don't worry Jack, I'm sure you'll have a proper introduction later in the book or chapter." Alex reassured her.

"I better." She sulked.

**The bell rang a second time and he looked at the alarm clock glowing beside him. 3.02am. There was a rattle as someone slid the security chain off the front door.**

Jack huffed again, causing the SAS men and the MI6 operatives to smirk slightly at her disgruntled face.

**He rolled out of bed and walked over to the open window, his bare feet pressing down the carpet pile. The moonlight spilled onto his chest and shoulders. Alex was fourteen,**

"What?" Wolf bellowed.

"You're fourteen?" Snake asked, lost for words.

"Yes, I thought you knew that." Alex said, completely bewildered by their angry gazes.

"We thought you were sixteen, Cub." Eagle said softly.

"It's disgusting that you were thrown into this, so young." Ben said, but he spoke so quietly that no one heard him.

**already well built, with the body of an athlete.**

"That's what made us think you were sixteen." Snake said pointlessy.

**His hair, cut short apart from two thick strands hanging over his forehead, was fair.**

"Oh, he's so dreamy." Eagle squealed, much to the annoyance of Alex.

"Aw, ickle Ally is blushing." Wolf sneered.

"I'd be careful, Wolf, that Cub has a nasty bite." Ben said, with a sly wink to Alex.

**His eyes were brown and serious.**

"Too serious." Jack sighed.

**For a moment he stood silently, half-hidden in the shadow, looking out. There was a police car parked outside. From his second-floor window Alex could see the black ID number on the roof and the caps of two men who were standing in front of the door. The porch light went on and, at the same time, the door opened.**

**"Mrs. Rider?"**

**"No. I'm the housekeeper. What is it? What's happened?"**

"Still no introduction!"

**"This is the home of Mr Ian Rider?"**

**"Yes."**

**"I wonder if we could come in..."**

**And Alex already knew.**

"I really wish you hadn't found out that way." Jack whispered.

"I know, but at least I had some time to deal with it."

**He knew from the way the police stood there, awkward and unhappy. But he also knew from the tone of their voices. Funeral voices ... that was how he would describe them later. The sort of voices people use when they come to tell you someone close to you has died.**

"I suppose that's not the best job." Snake observed.

"It would be awful." Alex agreed.

**He went to his door and opened it. He could hear the two policemen talking down the hall, but only some of the words reached him.**

**"...a car accident... called the ambulance... intensive care... nothing anyone could do... so sorry."**

"Sorry Cub." Wolf muttered.

Eagle and Snake refrained from making a joke about Wolf apologising to Cub.

**It was only hours later, sitting in the kitchen, watching as the grey light of morning bled through the west London streets, that Alex could try and make sense of what had happened. His uncle - Ian Rider - was dead.**

"Were you very close?" Snake asked.

"I...I don't know." Alex said softly.

No other questions were asked as they tried to make sense of what he had said.

**Driving home, his car had been hit by a lorry at Old Street round-about and he had been killed almost instantly. He hadn't been wearing a seat-belt, the police said. Otherwise, he might have had a chance.**

Alex snorted.

"You don't believe he would have survived?" Ben asked in shock.

"There is no way he would have survived, with or without a seatbelt."

"How do you know?"

"You'll see."

**Alex thought of the man who had been his only relation for as long as he could remember. He had never known his own parents.**

Wolf felt uneasy.

**They had died in an accident, that one a plane crash, a few weeks after he had been born.**

A tense silence filled the room.

"They're dead?" Eagle asked.

"Yes,"

"Oh God Cub, I am really sorry."

"What for?" Jack asked.

"You'll see,"

**He had been brought up by his father's brother (never "uncle" - Ian Rider hated that word) and had spent most of his fourteen years in the same terraced house in Chelsea, London, between the King's Road and the river. But it was only now Alex realised just how little he knew about the man.**

**A banker.**

"Boring!" Eagle complained.

**People said Alex looked quite like him. Ian Rider was always travelling. A quiet, private man who liked good wine, classical music and books. Who didn't seem to have any girlfriends...in fact he didn't have any friends at all. He had kept himself fit, had never smoked and had dressed expensively. But that wasn't enough. That wasn't a picture of a life. It was only a thumbnail sketch.**

"I see." Wolf said.

"See what?" Jack questioned.

"Alex thought he knew - and was close to - his uncle but when he finally thought about it, he did not feel he spent enough time with him, to truly understand whom he was."

"That's disturbingly deep." Was Jack's only reply.

**"Are you all right, Alex?" A young woman had come into the room.**

"Finally!" Jack yelled.

**She was in her late twenties, a sprawl of red hair and a round, boyish face.**

"Boyish?" She shreiked.

"Urm..."

**Jack Starbright was American. She had come to London as a student seven years ago, rented a room in the house - in return for light housework and baby-sitting duties - and had stayed on to become housekeeperand one of Alex's closest friends.**

"Aw." Eagle mocked.

**Sometimes he wondered what Jack was short for. Jackie? Jacqueline?**

"Really?" Jack asked.

"Of course." Alex said.

"Hmm."

"You're not going to say, are you?" Alex asked wryly.

"No,"

**Neither of them suited her and although he had once asked, she had never said.**

"And I never will say."

**Alex nodded. "What do you think will happen?" he asked.**

"Happen?" Wolf asked.

"I'm sure the book elaborates." Alex said.

**"What do you mean?"**

**"To the house. To me. To you."**

"Oh right." Wolf said, feeling rather embarrassed.

**"I don't know." She shrugged. "I guess Ian will have made a will. He'll have left instructions."**

**"Maybe we should look in his office."**

Alex wished he had looked in the office before it had been stripped bare.

**"Yes. But not today, Alex. Let's take it one step at a time."**

**Ian's office was a room running the full length of the house, high up at the top. It was the only room that was always locked - Alex had only been in there three or four times, never on his own. When he was younger, he had fantasized that there might have been something strange up there; a time machine or a UFO**.

"A UFO?" Ben smirked.

"I was a little kid!" Said Alex indignantly.

"Sure, whatever you say Cub." Eagle sang.

**But it was only an office with a desk, a couple of filing cabinets, shelves full of papers and books. Bank stuff - that's what Ian said. Even so, Alex wanted to go up there now. Because it had never been allowed.**

"Ah, the lure of the forbidden." Eagle said with a gleam in his eye.

Alex was pretty sure he didn't want to know what Eagle was thinking about.

**"The police said he wasn't wearing his seatbelt." Alex turned to look at Jack.**

**She nodded. "Yes. That's what they said."**

**"Doesn't that seem strange to you? You know how careful he was. He always wore his seat-belt. He wouldn't even drive me around the corner without making me put mine on."**

"_Paranoia is in bloom, the PR transmissions will resume-"_

"SHUT UP EAGLE!" Wolf bellowed.

"Sorry."

**Jack thought for a moment, then shrugged. "Yeah, it's strange," she said. "But that must have been the way it was. Why would the police have lied?"**

"Yes, why indeed?" Alex asked mockingly.

**The day dragged on. Alex hadn't gone to school even though, secretly, he had wanted to. He would have preferred to escape back into normal life - the clang of the bell, the crowds of familiar faces - instead of sitting there, trapped inside the house.**

"I can understand that." Snake said.

"You can?" Alex asked, astonished.

"I was sixteen when my father died."

"I'm sorry,"

**But he had to be there for the visitors who came throughout the morning and the rest of the afternoon.**

**There were five of them. A solicitor who knew nothing about a will but seemed to have been charged with organizing the funeral. A funeral director who had been recommended by the solicitor. A vicar - tall, elderly - who seemed disappointed that Alex didn't look more upset. A neighbour from across the road - how did she even know that anyone had died? And finally a man from the bank.**

Alex huffed at the mention of the awful 'bank'

**"All of us at the Royal & General are deeply shocked," he said.**

"I'm sure you were!" Alex bit out sarcasticly.

**He was in his thirties, wearing a polyester suit with a Marks & Spencer tie. He had the sort of face you forgot even while you were looking at it, and had introduced himself as Crawley, from Personnel. "But if there's anything we can do..."**

"Leave Alex alone." Jack hissed.

"Are we missing something?" Ben asked.

"You'll see soon." Alex promised.

**"What will happen?" Alex asked for the second time that day.**

**"You don't have to worry," Crawley said. "The bank will take care of everything. That's my job. You leave everything to me."**

Alex snorted, sure leave everything to Crawley.

**The day passed. Alex killed a couple of hours in the evening playing his Nintendo 64 - and then felt vaguely guilty when Jack cauught him at it.**

"I understood." Jack said kindly.

**But what else was he to do? Later she took him to Burger King. He was glad to get out of the house, but the two of them barely spoke. Alex assumed Jack would have to go back to America. She certainly couldn't stay in London for ever. So who would look after him? By law, he was still too young to look after himself. His whole looked so uncertain that he preferred not to talk about it. He preferred not to talk at all.**

Alex felt rather like that now, the sudden relisation dawned on him. This was his life! Why did they get to be nosy? Not that he could stop them, MI6 obviously wanted them to read these books, why else would they send them?

**And then the day of the funeral arrived and Alex found himself dressed in a dark jacket, preparing to leave in a black car that had come from nowhere, surrounded by people he had never met. Ian Rider was buried in the Brompton Cemetery on the Fulham Road, just in the shadow of Chelsea football ground, and Alex knew where he would have preferred to be on that Wednesday afternoon. About thirty people turned up but he hardly recognized any of them. A grave had been dug close to the lane that ran the length of the cemetery and as the service began, a black Rolls-Royce drew up, the back door opened and a man got out. Alex watched him as he walked forwar and stopped. Overhead, a plane coming in to land at Heathrow momentarily blotted out the sun. Alex shivered. There was something about the new arrival that made his skin crawl.**

Eagle snickered.

**And yet the man was ordinary to look at. Grey suit, grey hair, grey lips and grey eyes. His face was expressionless, the eyes behind the square, gunmetal spectacles completely empty. Perhaps that was what disturbed Alex. Whoever this man was, he seemed to have less life than anyone in the cemetery. Above or below ground.**

"Too true." Ben agreed.

**Someone tapped Alex on the shoulder and he turned around to see Mr Crawley leaning over him. "That's Mr Blunt," the personnel manager whispered. "He's the chairman of the bank."**

**Alex's eyes travelled past Blunt and over to the Rolls-Royce. Two more men had come with him, one of them the driver. They were wearing identical suits and, although it wasn't a particularly bright day, sunglasses. Both of them were watching the funeral with the same grim faces. Alex looked from them to Blunt and then to the other people who had come to the cemetery. Had they really known Ian Rider? Why had he never met any of them before? And why did he find it so difficult to belive that any of them really worked for a bank?**

"Because they don't."

**"...a good man, a patriotic man. He will be missed."**  
><strong>The vicar had finished his grave-side address. His choice of words struck Alex as odd. Patriotic? That meant he loved his country. But as far as Alex knew, Ian Rider had barely spent any time in it. Certainly he had never been one for waving the Union Jack. He looked round, hoping to find Jack, but instead saw that Blunt was making his way towards him, stepping carefully round the grave.<strong>

**"You must be Alex." The chairman was only a little taller than him. Close to, his skin was strangely unreal. It could have been made of plastic. "My name is Alan Blunt," he said. "Your uncle spoke often about you."**

**"That's funny," Alex said. "He never mentioned you."**

"You did not just say that to Blunt." Snake whispered.

The grey lips twitched briefly.

"Irritation or amusement?" Ben wondered briefly.

"Irritation."

**"We'll miss him. He was a good man."**

**"What was he good at?" Alex asked. "He never talked about his work."**

**Suddenly Crawley was there.**

"Course he was." Eagle muttered sullenly.

"**Your uncle was Overseas Finance Manager, Alex," he said. "He was responsible for our foreign branches. You must have known that."**

**"I know he travelled a lot," Alex said. "And I know he was very careful. About thing like seatbelts."**

"Tread carefully, Alex." Ben muttered.

"It's already happened.

**"Well, sadly he wasn't careful enough." Blunt's eyes, magnified by the thick lenses of his spectacles, lasered into his own and for a moment Alex felt himself pinned down, like an insect under a micrroscope. "I hope we'll meet again," Blunt went on. He tapped the side of his face with a single grey finger. "Yes..." Then he turned and went back to his car**.

"How delicate." Wolf snorted.

**It was as he was getting into the Rolls-Royce that it happened. The driver leaned across to open the back door and his jacket fell open, revealing the shirt underneath. And not just the shirt. The man was wearing a leather holster with an automatic pistol strapped inside. Alex saw it, even as the man, realizing what had happened, quickly straightened up and pulled the jacket across his chest. Blunt had seen it too. He turned back and looked again at Alex. Something very close to an emotion slithered over his face. Then he got into the car, the door closed and he was gone.**

Glances were exchanged, was that man still alive? Had he been fired? Mistakes like that could be fatal.

**A gun at a funeral. Why? Why would bank managers carry guns?**

**"Let's get out of here." Suddenly Jack was at his side. "Cemeteries give me the creeps."**

**"Yes. And quite a few creeps have turned up," Alex muttered.**

Everyone laughed as the tension lightened up slightly.

**They slipped away quietly and went home. The car that had taken them to the funeral was still waiting, but they preffered the open air. The walk took them fifteen minutes. As they turned the corner into their street, Alex noticed a removal van parked in front of the house, the words STRYKER & SON painted on its side.**

Alex narrowed his eyes.

**"What's that doing...?" he began.**

**At the same moment, the van shot off, its wheels skidding over the surface of the road.**

**Alex said nothing as Jack unlocked the door and let them in, but while she went to the kitchen to make some tea, he looked quickly round the house. A letter that had been on the hall table now lay on the carpet. A door that had been half-open was now closed. Tiny details, but Alex's eyes missed nothing. Somebody had been in the house. He was almost sure of it.**

"I thought so too, but I didn't want to say anything." Jack whispered.

**But he wasn't certain until he got to the top floor. The door to the office which had always, always been locked, was unlocked now. Alex opened it and went in. The room was empty. Ian Rider had gone and so had everything else. The desk drawers, the cupboards, the shelves... anything that might have told him about the dead man's work had been taken.**

**"Alex...!" Jack was calling to him from downstairs.**

**Alex took one last look around the forbidden room, wondering again about the man who had once worked there. Then he closed the door and went back down.**

"Well that was illuminating." Wolf smirked.

"I wanna read next!" Eagle cheered.

Alex handed him the paperback.

_AN_

_WHAT DO YOU THINK?_

_VOTE ON THE POLL_

_I DO NOT OWN THE ALEX RIDER SERIES_


	3. HEAVEN FOR CARS

"Well that was an interesting chapter." Wolf said dryly, "Does anyone mind if I read next?"

At the lack of protest he picked up the book and turned to the beginning of the next chapter.

**"Heaven For Cars"**

"Cars go to heaven?" Eagle asked stupidly.

"No."

"Then why does the chapter title say that?"

"I don't know, do I?" Wolf snapped.

**With Hammersmith Brigde just ahead of him, Alex left the river and swung his bike through the lights and down the hill towards Brookland School. The bike was a Condor Junior Roadracer, custom-built for him on his twelfth birthday.**

"So, it's a good bike then?" Snake asked.

"The best." Alex muttered thinking fondly of his old bike.

** It was a teenager's bike with a cut-down Reynolds 531 frame, but the wheels were full-sized so he could ride at speed with hardly any rolling resistance. **

"That means nothing to me." Jack sighed.

"Same here." Wolf grunted. They would never understand teenagers' affections for metal and rubber.

**He spun past a Mini and cut through the school gates. He would be sorry when he grew out of the bike. For two years now it had almost been a part of him.**

Alex sighed, mentally agreeing with the book. He really had loved that bike, it was the best thing he'd ever gotten for a birthday.

**He double-locked it in the shed**

"Aw, is little Cub scared someone will steal his bikey?" Wolf smirked.

"Yes." Alex said bluntly, ignoring the sarcasm in Wolf's voice.

** and went into the yard. Brookland was a new comprehensive, red brick and glass, modern and ugly.**

"You seem fond of your school." Ben said wryly.

** Alex could have gone to any of the smart private schools around Chelsea, but Ian Rider had decided to send him here. He said it would be more of a challenge.**

"That man." Jack muttered.

**The first lesson of the day was maths. **

"I always hated maths." Ben grinned, "I used to get so many letters home because I'd fallen asleep."

Alex snorted.

**When Alex came into the classroom, the teacher, Mr Donovan, was already chalking up a complicated equation on the board. **

"Yay, equations!" Eagle cheered.

"You are a right nutter, you know." Alex commented.

**It was hot in the room, the sunlight streaming in though the floor-to-ceiling windows put in by architects who should have known better.**

"They really should have." Alex said.

"You're talking to a book, Kid." Snake said.

"Yes, but these are technically my thoughts from one time or another, so I am really talking to myself." Alex trailed off.

"And that's so much better." Jack smirked.

"Whose side are you on?"

** As Alex took his place near the back, he wondered how he was going to get through the lesson. How could he possibly think about algebra when there were so many other questions churning through his mind?**

"Don't dwell on this Alex." Jack moaned.

"You already know what happens, Jack."

Well mostly. He had never actually told her that he had gone to the breaker's yard.

**The gun at the funeral.**

"Totally James Bond." Jack muttered sarcastically.

** The way Blunt had looked at him.**

It had been a very disturbing funeral.

** The van with STRYKER SON written on the side. The empty office. And the biggest question of all, the one detail that refused to go away. The seat-belt. Ian Rider hadn't been wearing a seat-belt.**

**But of course he had.**

"Of course, psychic now, are we Alex?" Wolf said sarcastically.

**Ian Rider had never been one to give lectures. He had always said Alex should make up his own mind about things. but he'd had this thing about seat-belts.**

"Oooo, what sort of thing?" Eagle snickered, waggling his eyebrows.

"You are disgusting." Jack said snidely.

**The more Alex thought about it, the less he believed it. A collision at a roundabout. Suddenly he wished he could see the car. **

"No I don't."

"What was that?" Jack said, her glare piercing Alex, and chilling K-Unit's bones.

**At least the wreckage would tell him that the accident had really happened, that Ian Rider really had died that way.**

"Lovely thoughts for a kid to have." Snake said darkly.

**"Alex?"**

**Alex looked up and realised that everyone was staring at him. Mr Donovan had just asked him something. He quickly scanned the blackboard, taking in the figures. "Yes, sir," he said, "x equals seven and y is fifteen."**

**The maths teacher sighed. "Yes, Alex. You're absolutely right. But actually I was just asking you to open the window."**

This seemed to amuse the big bad soldiers, as they all howled with laughter at the unfortunate mistake. Alex just huffed in annoyance.

**Somehow he managed to get through the rest of the day, but by the time the final bell rang, his mind was made up. While everyone else streamed out, he made his way to the secretary's office and borrowed a copy of Yellow Pages.**

"You better not be doing what I think you're doing Alex Rider!" Jack yelled.

"That depends on what you think I am doing." Alex said more bravely than he felt.

**"What are you looking for?" the secretary asked. Jane Bedfordshire was a young woman in her twenties, and she'd always had a soft spot for Alex.**

**"Breakers' yards..." Alex flicked through the pages. "If a car got smashed up near Old Street they'd take it somewhere nearby wouldn't they?"**

"Don't you dare go looking for that car!" Jack snarled.

"You do know this is all in the past don't you?" Fox said but upon seeing Jack's glare he hastily changed his tune, "But you are absolutely correct, that was a bad thing to think Alex."

**"I suppose so."**

**"Here..." Alex had found the yards listed under "Car Dismantlers". But there were dozens of them fighting for attention over four pages.**

**"Is this for a school project?" the secretary asked. She knew Alex had lost a relative, but not how.**

**"Sort of..." Alex was reading the addresses, but they told him nothing.**

"what were you expecting : 'Hello Alex, your Uncle's car is here if you want to have a look?" Wolf said.

"It would've helped a bit." Alex said ignoring the sarcasm.

**"This one's quite near old street." Miss Bedfordshire pointed at the corner of the page.**

**"Wait!" Alex tugged the book towards him and looked at the entry underneath the one the secretary had chosen:**

**J.B. STRYKER  
><em>Heaven for<em> cars  
>J.B. Stryker, Auto Breakers<br>Lambeth Walk, LONDON  
>Tel: 020 7123 5392<br>_call us today_**

"Crap. Please tell me you didn't go?" Jack pleaded. Alex avoided her eyes.

**"That's in Vauxhall," Miss Bedfordshire said. "Not too far from here."**

**"I know." But Alex had recognized the name. J.B. Stryker. He thought back to the van he had seen outside his house on the day of the funeral. STRYKER SON. Of course it might just be a coincidence,**

"There's no such thing as a coincidence." Alex hissed.

** but it was still somewhere to start. He closed the book. "I'll see you, Miss Bedfordshire."**

**"Be careful how you go." The secretary watched Alex leave wondering why she had said that.**

Eagle gasped in horror.

"What's wrong Eagle." Fox asked, he was used to dealing with Eagle's strangeness.

"They're controlling our minds!" He shrieked.

"Who?" Alex asked curiously.

"_Them."_

Seeing that it was unlikely that they'd get anything more from Eagle, they all turned their attention back to the book, although they still felt slightly creeped out.

** Maybe it was his eyes.**

"What's wrong with my eyes?" Alex yelled, staring Jack in the eye intently.

"Nothing is wrong..."

"But?"

"They're very serious, for your age."

**Dark and serious, there was something dangerous there.**

"I suppose that's ok then." Alex conceded.

"I'm sure the book is thrilled with your approval." Wolf snarked.

**Then the telephone rang and she forgot him as she went back to work.**

**J.B. Stryker's was a a square of wasteland between the railway tracks running out of Waterloo** **Station.**

"You actually went." Jack said in despair.

**The area was enclosed by a high brick wall topped with broken glass and razor wire. Two wooden gates hung open, and from the other side of the road Alex could see a shed with a security window and beyond it the tottering piles of dead and broken cars. Everything of any value had been stripped away and only the rusting carcasses remained, heaped one on top of the other, waiting to be fed into the crusher. **

"Lovely place." Eagle perked up.

"How on earth is it lovely?" Jack snarled.

"I-I don't kn-know?" Eagle stuttered.

**There was a guard sitting in the shed, reading the _Sun_. In the distance, a crane coughed into life, then roared down on a battered Ford Mondeo, its metal claw smashing through the window to scoop up the vehicle and carry it away. A telephone rang somewhere in the shed and the guard turned round to answer it. That was enough for Alex. Holding his bike and wheeling it along beside him, he sprinted through the gates. **

"Idiot! Foolish, reckless, immature, stupid..."

"Idiot?" Supplied Fox as he watched the redhead's angry tirade.

**He found himself surrounded by dirt and debris. The smell of diesel was thick in the air and the roar of engines was deafening. Alex watched as the crane swooped down on another of the cars, seized it in its metallic grip and dropped it into a crusher. For a moment the car rested on a pair of shelves. Then the shelves lifted up, toppling the car over and down into a trough. The operator sitting in a glass cabin at one end of the crusher pressed a button and there was a great belch of black smoke. The shelves closed in on the car like a monsterr insect folding in its wings. There was a grinding sound as the car was crushed until it was no bigger than a rolled-up carpet. Then the operator threw a gear and the car was squeezed out, metallic toothpaste, being chopped up by a hidden blade. The slices tumbled onto the ground. **

"Nice descriptions, they really helped calm us down Alex!"

**Leaving his bike propped up against the wall, Alex ran further into the yard, crouching down behind the wrecks. With the din from the machines there was no way anyone would hear him, but he was still afraid of being seen.**

"Someone please spot him and put an end to this idiocy." Jack cried.

** He stopped to catch his breath, drawing a grimy hand across his face. His eyes were watering from the diesel fumes. The air was as filthy as the ground beneath him. **

"See!" Jack said throwing her arms in the air.

**He was beginning to regret coming**

"I told you so!" Jack said.

"Actually...never mind."

** but then he saw it. His uncle's BMW parked a few metres away separated from the other cars. At first glance it looked absolutely fine, the metallic silver bodywork not even scratched . Certainly there was no way this car could have been involved in a fatal collision with a lorry or anything else.**

"Huh?" Wolf said.

** But it was his uncle's car. Alex recognized the number plate. He hurried closer , and it was then he saw that the car was damaged after all.**

"So there was an accident after all?" Snake asked.

"It was no accident."

** The windscreen had been smashed, along with all the windows on one side. Alex made his way aound the bonnet. He reached the other side. And froze.**

**Ian Rider hadn't died in any accident. What had killed him was plain to see even to someone who had never seen such a thing before. A spray of bullets had caught the car full on the driver's side, shattering the front tyre, then smashing the windscreen an side windows and punching into the side panels. Alex ran his fingers over the holes. The metal felt cold against his flesh. He opened the door and looked inside. The front seats , pale grey leather, were strewn with fragments of broken glass and stained with patches of dark brown. He didn't need to ask what the stains were. He could see everything. The flash of the machine-gun, the bullets ripping into the car, Ian Rider jerking in the driver's seat... **

"You are one morbid kid." Wolf shook his head.

"What would you think if you'd just saw your uncle's blood all over his car!"

**But why? Why kill a bank manager? And why had the murder been covered up? It was the police who had brought the news, so they must be part of it. Had they deliberately lied? None of it made sense. **

"Damn straight." Fox sighed.

**"You should have got rid of it two days ago. Do it now."**

**The machines must have stopped for a moment. If it hadn't been for the sudden lull, Alex would never have heard the men coming. Quickly he looked accross the steering-wheel and out the other side. There were two of them, both dressed in loose-fitting overalls. Alex had a feeling he'd seen them before. At the funeral. One of them was the driver, the man he had seen with the gun. He was sure of it. **

"An armed man? Hide Cub!" Snake yelled.

**Whoever they were, they were only a few paces away from the car, talking in low voices. Another few steps and they would be there. Without thinking , Alex threw himself into the only hiding place availabe, inside the car itself. Using his foot, he hooked the door and closed it. At the same time, he became aware that the machines had started again and he could no longer hear the men. He didn't dare look up. A shadow fell across the window as the men passed. But then they were gone. He was safe. **

"You should probably get out the car now." Eagle suggested

**And then something hit the BMW with such force that Alex cried out,**

"Why on earth did you not mention this to me Alex!" Jack screeched.

"You would have worried!" Alex argued.

"Rightfully so. You could have died."

"I know, but I didn't!"

"That is not the point Alex and you know it." Jack said furiously.

"Sorry to interrupt, but can we get back to the book please." Wolf said.

** his whole body caught in a massive shock wave that tore him away from the steering-wheel and threw him helplessly into the back.**

Jack paled. She had come so close to loosing him.

"Damn cub, you sure got yourself into a pickle didn't you?" Eagle muttered.

"You aren't helping Eagle." Alex snarled, watching Jack's unnaturally green face.

** At the same time, the roof buckled and three huge metal fingers tore through the skin of the car like a fork through an eggshell, trailing dust and sunlight. One of the fingers grazed the side of his head any closer and it would have cracked his skull.**

"What?" Jack screamed.

"Jack, please just calm down." Alex pleaded, if there was one thing he couldn't cope with it was over emotional women.

** Alex yelled as blood trickled over his** eye.

Alex winced, that really had annoyed him. He felt uneasy having his vision impaired.

**He tried to move, the was jerked back a second time as the car was yanked off the ground and tilted high up in the air.**

**He couldn't see. He couldn't move. But his stomach lurched as the car swung in a wide arc, the metal grinding and the light spinning. It had been picked up by the crane. It was going to be put inside the crusher. With him inside. **

Jack raced out the room and up the stairs. Alex scrunched his nose up at the sound of retching.

"Weak stomach?" Jack offered walking back into the room.

**He tried to raise himself up, to punch through the windows. But the claw of the crane had already flattened the roof, pining his left leg, perhaps even breaking it. He could feel nothing. He lifted a hand and managed to pound on the back window, but he couldn't break the glass, and even if the workmen were staring at the BMW, they would never see anything moving inside. **

"Why is it always you?" Jack sighed

**His short flight across the junkyard ended with a bone-shattering crash as the crane deposited the car on the iron shelves of the crusher. Alex tried to fight back his sickness and despair and think of what to do. Any moment now the operator would send the car tippig into the coffin-shaped trough. The machine was a Lefort Shear, a slow-motion guillotine. At the press of a button, two wings would close on the car with joint pressure of five hundred tons. The car, with Alex inside it, would be crushed beyond recognition. And then the broken metal- and flesh- would be chopped into sections. Nobody would ever know what happened. **

Even the SAS men and Ben looked queasy at the idea of a child being killed and no one ever knowing what had happened. He would have turned into one of those mysteries, the police searching everywhere, Jack appealling for information on TV. Perhaps even MI6 would be searching due to his family. It was all too realistic.

**He tried with all his strength to free himself. But the roof was too low. His leg was trapped. The his whole world tilted and he felt himself falling into darkness. The shelves had lifted. The BMW slid to one side and fell the few yards into the trough. Alex felt the metalwork collapsing all around him. **

Alex shuddered, that had been the first ever time he had been worried that he was actually about to die. Suprisingly he found that the rumours weren't true and his life hadn't flashes before his eyes.

**The back window exploded and glass showered around his head, dust and diesel fumes punching into his nose and eyes. There was hardly any daylight now, but looking out of the back, he could see the huge steel head of the piston that would push what was left of the car through ****the exit ****hole on the other side. **

"And you with it." Snake said, too quietly for anyone to hear.

**The engine tone of the Lefort Shear changed as it prepared for the final act. The metal wings ****shuddered. In a few seconds' time the two of them would meet, crumpling the BMW like a paper ****bag. Alex pulled with all his strength and was astonished when his leg came** free.

"Run Cub Run!" Eagle squawked.

Wolf glare at the most crazy member of his team.

"Control yourself Eagle, you are not on holiday!"

** It took him perhaps a second one precious second-to work out what had happened. When the car had fallen into the trough, it had landed on its side. The roof had buckled again just enough to free him. His hand scrabbled for the door-but, of course, that was useless. The doors were too bent. They would never open. The back window! With the glass gone, he could crawl through the frame, but only if he moved fast. **

Jack sighed in relief, she knew Alex was fast, and he was sitting here right next to her.

**The wings began to move. The BMW screamed as two walls of solid steel relentlessly crushed it. **

"How did you escape this one Alex?" Ben asked dryly.

"As best I could, with the circumstances."

**More glass shattered. One of the wheel axles snapped with the sound of a thunderbolt. Darkness ****began to close in. Alex grabbed hold of what was left of the backseat. Ahead of him he could see a single triangle of light, shrinking faster and faster. He could feel the weight of the two walls pressing down on him. The car was no longer a car but the fist of some hideous monster snatching at the insect that Alex had become. **

"I'm sure your English teacher would be proud." Snake smirked.

"I'm not! That teacher is a nutter honestly. I mean she's all 'Alex put more imagination into this, a three year old could do better!' and then she goes and says 'Do you ever pay attention I swear your imagination will ruin you, I said realistic not teenage spys running around saving the world.'" Alex huffed.

**With all his strength, he surged forward. His shoulders passed through the triangle, out into the ****light. Next came his legs, but at the last moment his shoe caught on a piece of jagged metal. He ****jerked and the shoe was pulled off, falling back into the car. Alex heard the sound of the leather ****being squashed. Finally, clinging to the black, oily surface of the observation platform at the back of the crusher, he dragged himself clear and managed to stand up. **

"Oh thank God!" Jack said.

**He found himself face-to-face with a man so fat that he could barely fit into the small cabin of the ****crusher.**

Ben swore loudly, causing Jack to glare at him.

** The man's stomach was pressed against the glass, his shoulders squeezed into the ****corners. A cigarette dangled on his lower lip as his mouth fell open and his eyes stared. What he ****saw was a boy in the rags of what had once been a school uniform. A whole sleeve had been torn ****off and his arm, streaked with blood and oil, hung limply by his side. By the time the operator had, taken this all in come to his senses, and turned the machine off, the boy had gone. **

"Yes! Get out of there Alex!" Eagle and Jack cheered.

**Alex clambered down the side of the crusher, landing on the one foot that still had a shoe. He was ****aware now of the pieces of jagged metal lying everywhere. If he wasn't careful, he would cut open t****he other foot.**

"I doubt that would help your situation." Wolf commented.

** His bicycle was where he had left it, leaning against the wall, and gingerly, half ****hopping, he made for it. Behind him he heard the cabin of the crusher open and a man's voice ****called out, raising the alarm. At the same time a second man ran forward, stopping between Alex ****and his bike. It was the driver, the man he had seen at the funeral.**

"Crap, he was armed." Snake groaned.

** His face, twisted into a hostile ****frown, was curiously ugly: greasy hair, watery eyes, pale, lifeless skin. **

"Sexy." Jack said. Immediately all the others choked.

**"What do you think . . ." he began. His hand slid into his jacket. Alex remembered the gun and, ****instantly, without even thinking, swung into action. He had started learning karate when he was six years old. One afternoon, with no explanation, Ian Rider had taken him to a local club for his first lesson and he had been going there, once a week, ever since. Over the years he had passed through the various Kyu-student grades. But it was only the year before that he had become a first-grade Dan, a black belt.**

Wolf stared at Alex as did Eagle and Snake, why hadn't they been made aware of this fact.

** When he had arrived at Brookland School, his gentle looks and accent had quickly brought him to the attention of the school bullies; three hulking sixteen-year olds. They had cornered him once behind the bike shed. **

"What! Why wasn't I told!" Jack protested.

"Nothing happened Jack."

**The encounter lasted less than a minute. The next day one of the bullies had left Brookland, and ****the other two had never troubled anyone again.**

"That doesn't sound like nothing to me." Fox chuckled.

**Now Alex brought up one leg, twisted his body around, and lashed out. The back kick Ushirogeri is said to be the most lethal in karate. His foot powered into the man's abdomen with such force that the man didn't even have time to cry out. His eyes bulged and his mouth half opened in surprise. Then, with his hand still halfway into his jacket, he crumpled to the ground. **

Alex noticed that he was getting wary glances and smiled internally.

**Alex jumped over him, snatched up his bike, and swung himself onto it. In the distance a third man was running toward him. He heard the single word "Stop!" called out. Then there was a crack and a bullet whipped past. Alex gripped the handlebars and pedaled as hard as he could. The bike shot forward, over the rubble and out through the gates. He took one look over his shoulder. Nobody had followed him.**

Jack smiled slighty, Alex really had the luck of the devil.

**With one shoe on and one shoe off, his clothes in rags, and his body streaked with oil, Alex knew****he must look a strange sight. But then he thought back to his last seconds inside the crusher and ****sighed with relief. He could be looking a lot worse. **

The book was placed on the table and everyone looked at Alex.

"I was curious." He said.

"Curious? Curious! You almost died because you were curious? Alex curiousityis listening at the door during Adult's conversations or doing research on some famous guy, that is being curious albeit a bit nosy. You however were stupidly reckless."

Alex listened quietly to her tirade till she stopped.

"Sorry." He said, stung by her harsh words.

* * *

><p><em>Please read<em>

_Sorry about the delay, my laptop is broken and I don't know when I'll get a new one. Sorry for any mistakes I typed this up on my iPod. I am really sorry and I hope you can forgive me._

_Vote on the poll as I am needing some advice please._

_Disclaimer: I don't ownAlex rider_


	4. ROYAL & GENERAL

Alex sighed grabbing the paperback off the table. Did Jack really think he was just a stupid kid? She always said he was the bravest, smartest young man she knew. Was this book bringing out the real side of everybody?

** ROYAL & GENERAL **

"The bank?" Ben asked.

"Unfortunately," Alex sighed.

**The bank rang the following day. **

"Is that the one where your uncle worked?" Eagle asked.

"I suppose. It's a pretty crappy bank though."

"Alex! Language." Jack sharply admonished.

**"This is John Crawley. Do you remember me? Personnel manager at the Royal & General. We were wondering if you could come in." **

"Why'd they want to see you?" Wolf asked. His tone was not mean or rude, merely curious.

**"Come in?" Alex was half-dressed, already late for school. **

"I'm always late for school." Alex sighed.

"That's because you never listen to your alarm." Jack reminded him.

"You're the one who made it play that ridiculous music.

**"This afternoon. We found some papers of your uncle's. We need to talk to you ... about your own position." **

"Position?" Snake inquired.

"A very unfortunate position." Alex said.

**Was there something faintly threatening in the man's voice?**

"Why would they threaten you?" Jack said, her eyes narrowing, "please tell me you didn't do some other stupid thing?"

Ben saw the look of betrayal in Alex's eyes.

"I'm sure Alex just interpreted it wrong." He spoke up. Alex smiled at him gratefully.

** "What time this afternoon?" Alex asked.**

**"Could you manage half-past four? We're on Liverpool Street. We can send a cab -"**

**"I'll be there," Alex said. "And I'll take the tube." **

"You really need to learn to keep your tongue in check." Jack sighed.

**He hung up.**

**"Who was that?" Jack called out from the kitchen. She was cooking breakfast for the two of them, although how long she could remain with Alex was a growing worry.**

Jack winced. She needed to speak to Alex and soon, maybe they could work everythig out somehow. Deep down however she knew Alex would never forgive her when she told him she was going to move back to America.

** Her wages hadn't been paid. She had only her own money to buy food and pay for the running of the house. Worse still, her visa was about to expire. Soon she wouldn't even be allowed to stay in the country. **

"I'm guessing you managed to sort your visa." Eagle said lightly.

**"That was the bank." Alex came into the room, wearing his spare uniform. He hadn't told her what happened at the breaker's yard. He hadn't even told her about the empty office.**

Jack grumbled slightly at that. She deserved to know the truth.

** Jack had enough on her mind.**

"I'm the adult Alex. It's up to me to know what the hell is happening with you." She hissed.

** "I'm going there this afternoon," he said.**

**"Do you want me to come?" **

**"No. I'll be fine." **

"I should have come anyway." She said.

"No, they wouldn't have let you keave the reception." Alex muttered.

**He came out of Liverpool Street tube station just after four-fifteen that afternoon, still wearing his school uniform: dark blue jacket, grey trousers,striped tie.**

Eagle snorted.

"What?" Alex asked.

"When I was your age, my school had these dusgusting mustard coloured ties, with bright green stripes down them."

"Seriously?"

"No, but I did get a few detentions for wearing my tie around my forehead." Eagle admitted.

"And you're defending our country."

** He found the bank easily enough. The Royal & General occupied a tall, antique-looking buildig with a Union Jack fluttering from a pole about fifteen floors up. There was a brass name-plate next to the main door and a security camera swivelling slowly over the pavement. **

Alex sighed, he was willing to bet they had a tape of him being shot by scorpia.

**Alex stopped in front of it. For a moment he wondered if he was making a mistake going in.**

"Yes a huge one." Jack said.

"They would have found me, whether or not I went."

** If the bank had been responsible in some way for Ian Rider's death, maybe they asked him here to arrange his own. No. The bank wouldn't kill him. He didn't even have an account there. He went in. **

Ben snorted. "Great, RBS may try to kill me, I guess I can't go there anymore."

"Haha." Alex said dryly.

**In an office on the seventeenth floor, the image on the security monitor flickered and changed as Street Camera #1 smoothly cut across to Reception Cameras #2 and #3 and Alex passed from the brightness outside to the cool shadows of the interior. A man sitting behind a desk reached out and pushed a button and he camera zoomed in until Alex's face filled the screen. **

Alex smiled. He had expected that anyway. It would be a pretty awful headquarters if they didn't monitor who was going in or out.

**"So he came," the chairman of the bank muttered. **

**"That's the boy?" The speaker was a middle-aged woman. She had a strange, potato-shaped head and her black hair looked as if it had been cut using a pair of blunt scissors and an upturned bowl. She was dressed in a severe grey suit and was sucking a peppermint. "Are you sure about this, Alan?" she asked.**

**Alan Blunt nodded. "Oh yes. Quite sure. You know what to do?" **

**The last question was addressed to his driver, wbo was standing uncomfortably, slightly hunched over. His face was a chalky white. He had been like that ever since he tried to stop Alex in the breaker's yard. "Yes, sir," he said. **

"Poor man." Alex sighed.

"You hurt him." Wolf reminded.

"Hmmm. He must be lucky then, at least he got to see this dashing face."

"You're such a teenager." Ben sighed.

"Ouch. I'm insulted."

**"Then do it," Blunt said. His eyes never left the screen.**

**In reception, Alex had asked for John Crawley and was sitting on a leather sofa, vaguely wondering why so few people were going in or out.**

"They should hire people to walk in and out." Alex said.

"It would be odd if the same person came to the bank five times everyday." Ben said.

"They'd have to wear disguises obviously." Alex said.

"Obviously."

** The reception was wide and airy, with a brown marble floor, three elevators to one side and, above the desk, a row of clocks showing the time in every major world city. But it could have been the entrance to anywhere. A hospital. A concert hall. Even a cruise liner. The place had no identity of its own. **

"I wonder what happens when someone actually tries to open an account there." Alex said.

"They give them piles of paperwork then find something that could deny them an account." Ben answered.

"What if they're perfect?"

"No one is perfect, Alex." Jack said.

"But what if?" He persisted.

"I don't know ask Blunt!" Ben said.

**One of the lifts pinged open and Crawley appeared in his usual suit, but with a different tie. "I'm sorry to have kept you waiting, Alex," he said. "Have you come straight from school?"**

**Alex stood up but said nothing, allowing his uniform to answer the man's question. **

"Wow, can your uniform really talk?" Snake sniped.

"It's very intellectual." Alex replied.

**"Let's go up to my office," Crawley said. He gestured. "We'll take the lift."**

**Alex didn't notice the fourth camera inside the lift, but then it was concealed in the other side of the two-way mirror that covered the back wall. **

"Well, that's not going to make you paranoid at all." Snake remarked.

"What do you mean?" Eagle asked.

"Every time you see a mirror in an elevator you're going to wonder if there's a camera on the other side watching your every move."

"I bet there is." AleX agreed.

"Why would there be?" Jack snapped.

"Stop burglers, catch assaults etc." Alex listed.

Jack rolled her eyes.

"Are you ok Jack? You're very sharp and withdrawn today." Alex said worriedly.

"I'm fine."

**Nor did he see the thermal intensifier next to the camera. But this second machine looked both at him and through him as he stood there, turning him into a pulsating mass of different colours, none of which translated the cold steel of a hidden gun or knife. In less than the time it took Alex to blink, the machine had passed its information down to a computer which instantly evaluated it and then sent its own signal back to the circuits that controlled the elevator. _It's OK. He's unarmed. Continue to the fifteenth floor. _**

**"Here we are!" Crawley smiled and ushered Alex out into a long corridor with an uncarpeted, wooden floor and modern lighting. A series of doors punctuated by framed paintings, brightly coloured abstracts. "My office is just along here." Crawley pointed the way.**

**They had passed three doors when Alex stopped. Each door had a name-plate and this one he recognized - 1504: Ian Rider. White letters on black plastic. **

"They should have left it unlocked." Alex pouted.

**Crawley nodded sadly. "Yes. This was where your uncle worked. He'll be much missed."**

**"Can I go inside?" Alex asked.**

**Crawley seemed suprised. "Why do you want to do that?" **

**"I'd be interested to see where he worked."**

**"I'm sorry." Crawley sighed. "The door will have been locked and I don't have the key. Another time perhaps." He gestured again. He used his hands like a magician, as if he was about to produce a fan of cards. "I have the office next door. Just here." **

"A magician?" Ben asked.

"Sure. When I was seven I wanted to be a magician." Alex smirked."I stole the neighbour's rabbit in my attempts."

"You stole it?" Wolf smirked.

"Poor Mr. Fluffykins was never the same after." Alex said solemnly.

"Of course he wasn't, Ian sat on him."

**They went into 1505. It was a large, square room with three windows looking out over the station. There was a flutter of red and blue outside and Alex remembered the flag he had seen. The flag pole was right next to Crawley's office. Inside there was a desk and chair, a couple of sofas, in the corner a fridge, on the wall a couple of prints. A boring executive office. Perfect for a boring executive. **

**"Please, Alex. Sit down," Crawley said. He went over to the fridge. "Can I get you a drink?" **

**"Do you have coke?" **

"I like Coke, but recently I have decided that Dr Pepper is much better." Alex said seriously.

**"Yes." Crawley opened a can and filled a glass, then handed it to Alex. "Ice?" **

**"No thanks." Alex took a sip. It wasn't coke. It wasn't even Pepsi. He recognized the slightly cloying taste of supermarket cola and wished he'd asked for water.**

"I can't stand that stuff." Eagle sighed.

"I know it tastes like they've watered it down till it was barely even pop[1]." Alex sighed.

** "So what do you want to talk to me about?" **

**"Your uncle's will-"**

**The telephone rang and with another hand-sign, this one for "excuse me", Crawley answered it. He spoke for a few moments then hung up again. "I'm very sorry, Alex. I have to go down to reception. Do you mind?" **

**"Go ahead." Alex settled himself on the sofa. **

Alex sighed. It had really been planned out well. He wonderedif they'd meant for him to jump out a window.

**"I'll be five minutes." With a final nod of apology, Crawley left.**

**Alex waited a few seconds. Then he poured the cola into a potted plant and stood up. He went over to the door and back into the corridor. At the far end, a woman carrying a pile of papers appeared then disappeared through a door. There was no sign of Crawley. Quickly, Alex moved back to the door of 1504 and tried the handle. But Crawley had been telling the truth. It was locked. **

"Shame. It would've been cool for you to go in." Jack sighed.

**Alex went back into Crawley's office. He would have given anything to spend a few minutes alone in Ian Rider's office. Somebody thought the dead man's work was important enough to keep hidden from him. They had broken into his house and cleaned out everything they'd found in the office there. Perhaps the next-door room might tell him why. What exactly had Ian Rider been involved in? And was it the reason he had been killed? **

The SAS men and Ben looked at him curiously. He seemed determined to get into that office, but how would he do it if it was locked.

**The flag fluttered again and, seeing it, Alex went over to the window. The pole jutted out of the building exactly halfway between rooms 1504 and 1505. If he could somehow reach it, he should be able to jump on the ledge that ran along the side of the building that ran along the side of the building outside room 1504. Of course, he was fifteen floors up. If he jumped and missed there would be about seventy metres to fall.**

Jack started glaring at Alex whilst the others gaped in shock.

** It was a stupid idea. It wasn't even worth thinking about. **

"Thank god." Jack muttered.

**Alex opened the window and climbed out.**

Jack glared at Alex again.

** It was better not to think about it at all. He would just do it. After all, if this had been the ground floor, or a climbing-frame in the school yard, it would have been child's play. It was only the sheer brick wall stretching down to the pavement, the cars and buses moving like toys so far below and the blast of wind against his face that made it terrifying. Don't think about it. Do it. **

"Think a little." Ben said.

"Yeah Cub." Eagle sighed. "This is really dangerous."

**Alex lowered himself onto the ledge outside Crawley's office. His hands were behind him, clutching on to the window-sill. He took a deep breath and jumped. **

"Idiot!" Jack screamed before storming out.

Alex watched her go. "Keep reading, she needs to calm down." He said to tonelessly

**A camera located in an office across he road caught Alex as he launched himself into space. Two floors above, Alan Blunt was sitting still in front of the screen. He chuckled. It was a humourless sound. "I told you," he said. "The boy's extraordinary."**

**"The boy's quite mad," the woman retorted. **

"Thanks."

**"Well, maybe that's what we need." **

**"You're just going to sit here and watch him kill himself?" **

**"I'm going to sit here and hope he survives." **

"That's barbaric!" Wolf growled.

"That's Blunt."

**Alex had miscalculated the jump. He had missed the flagpole by a centimetre and would have plunged down to the pavement if his hands hadn't caught hold of the Union Jack itself. He was hanging now with his feet in mid-air. Slowly, with huge effort, he pulled himself up, his fingers hooking into the material. Somehow he managed to climb back up on to the pole. He still didn't look down. He just hoped no passserby would look up. **

"I think since your stunt wasn't on youtube or TV the. They didn't"

**It was easier after that. He squatted on the pole, then threw himself across to the ledge outside Ian Rider's office. He had to be careful. Too far to the left and he would crash into the side of the building, but too far the other way and he would fall. In fact he landed perfectly, grabbing hold of the ledge with both hands and then pulling himself up until he was level with the window. It was only then he wondered if the window would be locked. If so, he'd just have to go back.**

**It wasn't. Alex slid the window open and hoisted himself into the second office, which was in many ways a carbon copy of the first. It had the same furniture, the same carpet, even a similar print on the wall. He went over to the dezk and sat down. The first thing he saw was a photograph of himself, taken the summer before on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, where he had gone diving. There was a second picture tucked into the corner of the frame. Alex aged five or six. He was suprised by the photographs. He had never thought of Ian as a sentimental man. **

"Maybe he was more sentimental than he let on." Wolf said knowledgeably.

**Alex glanced at his watch. About three minutes had passed since Crawley had left the office, and he had said he would be back in five. If he was going to find anything here, he had to find it quickly. He pulled open a drawer of the desk. It contained five or six thick files. Alex took them and opened them. He saw at once they had nothing to do with banking. **

"I finally got the truth." Alex sighed.

"Was it worth it?" Snake asked.

"No."

**The first was marked: NERVE POISONS -NEW METHODS OF CONCEALMENT AND DISSEMINATION. Alex put it aside and looked at the second. ASSASSINATIONS - FOUR CASE STUDIES. Growing ever more puzzled, he quickly flicked through the rest of the files, which covered counter-terrorism, the movement of uranium across Europe and interrogation techniques. The last file was simply labelled: STORMBREAKER. **

"That's the name of the book." Eagle said.

"Well done." Wolf said clapping.

**Alex was about to answer when the door suddenly opened and two men walked in. One of them was Crawley. The other was the driver from the breaker's yard. Alex knew there was no point trying to explain what he was doing. He was sitting behind the desk with the stormbreaker file open in his hands. But at the same time he realized that the two men weren't suprised to see him there. From the way they had come into the room, they had expected to find him.**

**"This isn't a bank," Alex said. "Who are you? Was my uncle working for you? Did you kill him?" **

**"So many questions," Crawley muttered. "But I'm afraid we're not authorized to give you the answers."**

"Damn. Maybe Jones or Blunt'll tell you." Eagle said.

**The other man lifted his hand and Alex saw that he was holding a gun. He stood up behind the desk, holding the file as if to protect himself. **

"A gun?" Wolf said.

"Get out of there Cub." Snake said.

**"No -" he began. **

**The man fired. There was no explosion. The gun spat at Alex and he felt something slam into his heart. His hand opened and the file tumbled to the ground. Then his legs buckled, the room twisted and he fell back into nothing. **

"At least we know you don't die." Snake sighed.

"Alex," Alex turned to the door and saw Jack. "We really need to talk."

* * *

><p><em> [1] pop. I'm from England (live in Scotland though) and we call it pop, Scots call it fizzy juice, and correct me if I'm wrong but I think in America its called Soda. So if I say pop again, thats what it is. <em>

_About Jack... The original plan was to have her leave for America because she can't deal with it anymore, thats why she was being so cold- to try to distance herself. TheN Alex would be free to bond with K-Unit and be adoptedby one of them._

_If you really hate this idea tell me, and I'll rethink somethings. If I do have Jack leave in the future I'll do a nice fluffy Alex and Jack fic (not romantic of course)_

_I dont own Alex Rider._


	5. SO WHAT DO YOU SAY?

Alex followed Jack out of the sitting room and into the kitchen. He was rather wortied about this conversation they were about to have. Jack had been tense and withdrawn from him the past day, not only the past day but also the past weeks, they had steadily been growing apart and truthfully it scared Alex.

"Tea? Coffee? Juice?" Jack asked politely. Too politely, it was a strangely formal tone.

"No thanks," Alex said quietly. "What did you want to talk to me about?"

Jack sighed heavily and paused in the process of pouring herself a cup of coffee.

"Alex. It's hard, watching you hurt yourself on all these missions." Jack said slowly.

"I'm sorry," Alex said. "I don't mean to worry you."

"That's just it though Alex." Jack said, her voice steadily rising. "You don't _mean _to but you do! Every time you go away somewhere I find myself wondering what flowers to get for your funeral. Will you have been tortured? Mentally scared? Disabled? I don't think I can do this anymore."

Alex swallowed.

"What are you saying?" He asked, even though he understood perfectly fine what she was about to tell him.

"I'm going back to America. For good."

"Jack please. You're the only one who understands." Alex said, tears threatening at the corner of his eyes. He blinked away furiously, he wouldn't cry for this.

"But I don't understand. I try to but I can't."

"Jack, don't go." Alex said.

"My plane is tomorrow. I wanted to tell you earlier but I didn't know how. You- you probably won't see me again." Jack said.

"Jack. I'm sorry." Alex said desperately.

"I'll be leaving soon, and I'll just stay in a hotel tonight, it'll be easier."

Exactly 23 minutes later a suitcase stood in the hall way. Jack looked guilty and relieved.

"My taxi will be here in half an hour." She said. "I guess we can read another chapter till then."

"Suit yourself." Alex shortly, he felt betrayed.

They walked back into the sitting room. Alex sat as far away from Jack as he could, he couldn't bear looking her in the eye after she found out that she was the reason he even became a spy.

"What's wrong?" Wolf said tensly. Had someone broken in?

"Jack will be leaving after this chapter." Alex said shortly.

"Alex, it's not like that." Jack protested.

"Jack feels that looking after a teenager is affecting her life too much, so she is going back to America." Alex said bitterly.

"I can't bear to see you get hurt anymore!" Jack yelled.

"You promised me you wouldn't leave me alone like Ian did." Alex said harshly.

"What he did was wrong Alex."

"He left me alone to fend for myself when he was god knows where." Alex said.

"But you were only six." Jack said.

"I'm fourteen now. You're basically just giving MI6 guardianship." He hissed.

Jack sat back stung. "Just read the chapter."

Wolf hesitantly started reading.

**"SO WHAT DO YOU SAY?" **

**Alex opened his eyes. So he was still alive! That was a nice suprise. **

"That's what you thought at first?" Snake blinked in shock.

"I thought they were going to kill me." Alex defended, trying to ignore the recent conversation with Jack:

**He was lying on a bed in a large, comfortable room.**

"You would think they wouldn't be bothered about your comfort after they shot you." Ben huffed.

"Well, they did, you know how kind and caring MI6 are." Alex said sarcastically.

** The bed was modern but the room was old, with beams running across the ceiling, a stone fireplace and narrow windows in ornate wooden frames.**

"You really do pay attention to details don't you." Snake muttered.

"Knowing minor things can be the difference between living and dying." Alex sighed, not noticing Jack's flinch.

** He had seen rooms like this in books when he was studying Shakespeare.**

"Oooo, you like Shakespeare eh?" Eagle teased.

"No we were forced to read Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and Macbeth at school. It was torture." Alex complained.

** He would have said the building was Elizabethan. It had to be somewhere in the country.**

"You can get Elizabethan houses in cities and towns." Wolf said.

"I never said you couldn't, but I did have a reason for assuming it was in the country."

** There was no sound of traffic. Outside he could see the trees. **

"Good deduction skills." Ben said wryly.

**Someone had undressed him.**

"Ew! Pedophile! Run Cub run." Eagle said frantically.

"It was just the maid, Eagle. I made sure to check."

"Why?" Snake asked.

"Because I was worried it had been Blunt or Crawley." Alex smirked.

** His school uniform was gone. Instead he was wearing loose pyjamas, silk from the feel of them.**

"Fancy." Jack said coldly.

** From the light outside he would have guessed it was early evening. He found his watch lying on the table beside the bed and reached out for it. The time was twelve o'clock. It had been half-past four when he was shot with what must have been a drugged dart. He had lost a whole night and half a day. **

"Oh no." Eagle said.

**There was a bathroom leading off the bedroom; bright white tiles and a huge shower behind a cylinder of glass and chrome. Alex stripped off the pyjamas and stood for five minutes under a jet of steaming water.**

"What if they had cameras in the bathroom?" Eagle piped up.

Alex turned a funny green colour and Wolf punched Eagle's arm.

** He felt better after that. **

"I don't now thanks to Eagle." Alex hissed.

**He went back into the bedroom and opened the cupboard. Someone had been to his house in Chelsea.**

"I'd assume Crawley." Wolf said.

** All his clothes were here, neatly hung up. He wondered what Crawley had told Jack. Presumably he would have made up some story to explain his sudden disappearance.**

"That's all it ever is though; stories." Jack muttered. "It was rarely the full truth."

"It doesn't matter anymore though does it? You're leaving." Alex said blankly.

** He took out a pair of Gap combat trousers, a Nike sweatshirt and trainers, got dressed, then sat on the bed and waited. **

"It was boring waiting." Alex whined.

After recieving a few odd looks he growled, "What?" in irritation.

"It's the first time we've heard you whine." Wolf explained whikst Alex glowered.

**About fifteen minutes later there was a knock and the door opened. A young asian woman in a nurse's uniform came in, beaming. **

Fox smiled as Alex muttered about cheerful nutters, he was growing wuite fond of the unfortunate fourteen year old, with a very unfortunate life.

**"Oh, you're awake. And dressed. How are you feeling? Not too groggy, I hope. Please come this way. Mr Blunt is expecting you for lunch." **

"You could've let him answer." Snake said.

"Snake it's a book, and its all in the past. You can't change anything now." Fox sighed.

**Alex hadn't spoken a word to her. He followed her out of the long room, along a corridor and down a flight of stairs. The house was indeed Elizabethan, with wooden panels along the corridors, ornate chandeliers and oil paintings of old, bearded men in tunics and ruffs.**

"Those clothes look absolutely ridiculous." Eagle sniggered.

** The stairs led down into a tall, galleried room with a rug spread out over flagstones and a fireplace big enough to park a car in. A long, polished wooden table had been laid for three. Alan Blunt and a dark, rather masculine woman unwrapping a sweet were sitting down. Mrs Blunt? **

**"Alex." Blunt smiled briefly, as if it was something he didn't enjoy doing. "It's good of you to join us." **

"Yes. Because you gave him so many choices." Ben sighed.

**Alex sat down. "You didn't give me a lot of choice." **

"Woah, careful Foxy Boy, or you'll turn into another Double O Nothing." Eagle smirked.

"Don't call me that." Ben and Alex said at the same time.

**"Yes. I don't quite know what Crawley was thinking of, shooting you like that, but I suppose it was the easiest way. May I introduce my colleague, Mrs Jones."**

**The woman nodded at Alex. Her eyes seemed to examine him minutely, but she said nothing.**

**"Who are you?" Alex asked. "What do you want with me?"**

**"I'm sure you have a great many questions. But first, let's eat." Blunt must have pressed a hidden button, or else he was being overheard, for at that precise moment a door opened and a waiter - in a white jacket and black trousers - appeared carrying three plates. "I hope you eat meat," Blunt continued. "Today it's _carré d'angneau."_**

"What if you disn't eat meat?" Eagle said.

"Doesn't matter I didn't eat it anyway."

Jack frowned slightky befire reminding herself that it didn't matter, he was no longer her responsibility.

**"You mean, roast lamb." **

"You speak french?" Ben asked him.

"Oui." Alex said.

"Even Eagle can say Oui Alex." Ben smirked.

"Fine don't believe my awesome secret talents." Alex said feigning hurt.

**"The chef is french."**

**Alex waited until the food had been served. Blunt and Jones drank red wine. He stuck to water.**

"Why? Weren't you slightly tempted to have alcohol?" Snake said curiously.

"No, I have seen what can happen to people when they're wasted and it isn't pleasant."

** Finally, Blunt began.**

**"As I'm sure you've gathered," he said, "the Royal & General is not a bank.**

"No shit sherlock." Eagle said.

** In fact it doesn't exist ... it's nothing more than a cover. And it follows, of course, that your uncle had nothing to do with banking. He worked for me. My name, as I told you at the funeral, is Blunt. I am Chief Executive of the Special operations Division of MI6. And your uncle was, for want of a better word, a spy." **

"Well he sure is living up to his name isn't he?" Snake chuckled.

"What?" Jack said.

"Blunt. He said all that rather bluntly."

**Alex couldn't help smiling. "You mean ... like James Bond?"**

**"Similar, although we don't go for numbers. Double 0**

"Could've fooled me." Alex said bitterly.

** and all the rest of it. He was a field agent, highly trained and very courageous. He successfully completed assignments in Iran, Washington, Hong Kong and Cairo - to name a few. I imagine this must come as a bit of a shock to you." **

"Was it?" Snake asked.

"Not really, he was quite secretive."

**Alex thought about the dead man, what he had known of him. His privacy. His long absences abroad. And the times he had come home injured. A bandaged arm one time. A bruised face another. Little accidents, Alex had been told. But now it all made sense. "I'm not shocked," he said. **

Alex sighed sadly. He wished Ian Rider was still alive, in fact if he was wishing for things he wished his parents were still alive or at the very least that Jack still wantrd him.

**Blunt cut a neat slice of meat. "Ian Rider's luck ran out on his last mission," he went on. "He had been working undercover here in England, in Cornwall, and was driving back to London to make a report when he was killed. You saw his car at the yard."**

**"Stryker & Son," Alex muttered. "Who are they?" **

**"Just some people we use. We have budget restraints. We have to contract some of our work out. Mrs Jones here is our Head of Special Operations. She gave your uncle his last assignment."**

**"We're very sorry to have lost him, Alex." The woman spoke for the first time. She didn't sound very sorry at all. **

Alex snorted. "She was just sad she lost an agent."

**"Do you know who killed him?"**

**"Yes."**

**"Are you going to tell me?"**

**"No. Not now."**

**"Why not?"**

**"Because you don't need to know. Not at this stage." **

"That sounds rather infuriating." Wolf admitted.

"It was."

**"All right." Alex put down his knife and fork. He hadn't actually eaten anything.**

"I hope you don't make a habit of skipping meals." Snake said, as the units medoc he knew how important eating proper meals was.

** "My uncle was a spy. Thanks to you he's dead. I found out too much, so you knocked me out and brought me here. Where am I, by the way?"**

**"This is one of our training centres," Mrs Jones said.**

**"You've brought me here because you don't want me to tell anyone what I know. Is that what this is all about? Because if it is, I'll sign the Official Secrets Act or whatever it is you want me to do, but then I'd like to go home. This is all crazy anyway. And I've had enough. I'm out of here." **

"Some how I don't think that'll work." Ben sighed.

**Blunt coughed quietly. "It's not quite as easy as that," he said.**

**"Why not?"**

**"It's certainly true that you did draw attention to yourself both at the breaker's yard and theN at our offices on Liverpool street. And it's also true that what you know and what ai'm about to tell you must go no further. But the fact of the matter is, Alex, we need your help." **

"They're crazy." Wolf said.

"You're a schoolboy." Snake protested.

"It doesn't matter to them." Alex said.

**"My help?"**

** "Yes." He paused. "Have you heard of a man called Herod Sayle?" **

"Isn't he that really rich guy?" Snake said.

"He made a computer Jack said.

**Alex thought for a moment. "I've seen his name in the newspapers. He's something to do with ****computers. And he owns racehorses. Doesn't he come from somewhere in Egypt?" **

"It's not Egypt." Ben muttered. "But I can't remember the actual place."

**"No. From the Lebanon" Blunt took a sip of wine. "Let me tell you his story, Alex. I'm sure you'll find it of interest... **

"Story time with Blunt. Once upon a time..."

**"Herod Sayle was born in complete poverty in the backstreets of Beruit. His father was a failed hairdresser.**

"Then why not start a different job?" Eagle asked the book.

** His mother took in washing. He had nine brothers and four sisters, all living together in three small rooms along with the family goat.**

"Sometimes I wonder why people with so little money have so many kids, I mean come on men. Keep it in your pants." Jack said.

** Young Herod never went to school and he should have ended up unemployed, unable to read or write, like the rest of them." **

"So why didn't he?" Snake said, he was actually rather interested.

**"But when he was seven, something occurred that changed his life. He was walking down Olive Street ****-in the middle of Beirut - when he happened to see an upright piano fall out of a fourteen story window. Apparently it was being moved and it somehow overturned. Anyway, there were a ****couple of American tourists walking along the pavement underneath and they would both have been crushed-no doubt about it except at the last minute Herod threw himself at them and pushed them out of the way. The piano missed them by a millimetre. **

"That was nice of him. But its rather strange that a piano just happened to be falling." eagle said.

**"Of course, the tourists were enormously grateful to the young waif, and it now turned out that they were very rich. They made enquiries about him and discovered how poor he was ... the very clothes he was wearing had been passed down by all nine of his brothers.**

"Now that is poverty." Alex said. "Not some teenage girl who has to wear the same set of clothes more than once."

** And so, out of ****gratitude, they more or less adopted him. Flew him out of Beirut and put him into a school over ****here, where he made astonishing progress.**

"What about his parents?" Snake said.

"He probably didn't care, he got everything he wouldn't have got." Wolf said.

** He got nime O- Levels and-here's an amazing ****coincidence-at the age of fifteen he actually found himself sitting next to a boy who would grow up to become prime minister of Great Britain. Our present prime minister, in fact. The two of them were at school together. **

"Good for them." Eagle said.

**"I'll move quickly forward. After school, Sayle went to Cambridge, where he got a first in ****economics. He then set out on a career that went from success to success. His own radio station, recording label, ****computer software ... and, yes, he even found time to buy a string of racehorses, although for some reason they always seem to come last. But what drew him to our attention was his most recent invention. A quite revolutionary computer that he calls the Stormbreaker." **

"Now it starts to get interesting." Wolf grinned.

**Stormbreaker. Alex remembered the file he had found in Ian Rider's office. Things were beginning to come together. **

Alex sighed. He had still missed alot though.

**"The Stormbreaker is being manufactured by Sayle Enterprises," Mrs. Jones said. "There's been a lot of talk about the design. It has a black keyboard and black casing"**

**"With a lightning bolt going down the side," Alex said. He had seen a picture of it in PCReview. **

"Swot." Eagle chuckled.

"Guiity." Alex said with a shrug.

**"It doesn't only look different," Blunt cut in. "It's based on a completely new technology. It uses ****something called the round processor. I don't suppose that will mean anything to you." **

"Please, please, please know what it is." Eagle begged.

**"It's an integrated circuit on a sphere of silicon about one millimeter in diameter," Alex said. "It's ninety percent cheaper to produce than an ordinary chip because the whole thing is sealed in so you don't need clean rooms for production."**

**"Oh. Yes . . ." Blunt coughed.**

"BURN!" Eagle yelled happily, before being slapped by Fox.

**"Well, the point is, later today, Sayle Enterprises are going to make a quite ****remarkable announcement. They are planning to give away tens of thousands of these computers. ****In fact, it is their intention to ensure that every secondary school in England gets its own Sormbreaker****. It's an unparalleled act of generosity, Sayle's way of thanking the country that gave him a home." **

"He'd have to be really grateful to do that." Wolf said, eyes wide.

"I don't remember the schools getting them however." Snake frowned.

"They didn't." Jack said.

**"So the man's a hero."**

**"So it would seem. He wrote to Downing Street a few months ago: **

_**"My dear Prime Minister. **_

_**You ****may remember me from our school days together. For almost forty years I have lived in England ****and I wish to make a gesture, something that will never be forgotten, to express my true feelings ****toward your country.** _

"He told the truth, in a weird twisted way." Alex said too quietly for the others to hear:

**The letter went on to describe the gift and was signed,'_Yours humbly_,' by the man himself. Of course, the whole government was excited. The computers are being assembled at the Sayle plant down in Port Tallon, Cornwall. They'll be shipped across the country at the end of this month, and on April 1st there's to be a special ceremony at the Science Museum in London. **

"We were there." Wolf said. "It was chaos, some nutcase shot the Prime Minister."

Alex sniggered.

**The prime minister is going to press the button that will bring all the computers online ... the ****whole lot of them. And this is top secret, by the way-Mr. Sayle is to be rewarded with British ****citizenship, which is something he has apparently always wanted." **

"And they all oived happily ever after." Eagle said in a high pitched voice/

**"Well, I'm very happy for him," Alex said. "But you still haven't told me what this has got to do with me."**

**Blunt glanced at Mrs. Jones, who had finished her meal while he was talking. She unwrapped ****another peppermint and took over. **

**"For some time now, this department-Special Operations-has ****been concerned about Mr. Sayle. The fact of the matter is, we've been wondering if he isn't too ****good to be true. I won't go into all the details, Alex, but we've been looking at his business ****dealings ... he has contacts in China and the former Soviet Union; countries that have never been our friends. The government may think he's a saint, but there's a ruthless side to him too. And the security arrangements down at Port Tallon worry us. He's more or less formed his own private army. He's acting as if he's got something to hide." **

"Good for him. You're way too nosy." Eagle said.

**"Not that anyone will listen to us," Blunt muttered. **

"Rejected."

**"Exactly. The government's too keen to get their hands on these computers to listen to us. That ****was why we decided to send our own man down to the plant. Supposedly to check on security. But, in fact, his job was to keep an eye on Herod Sayle."**

**"You're talking about my uncle," Alex said. Ian Rider had told him that he was going to ****an insurance convention. Another lie in a life that had been nothing but lies. **

"And your life is heading the same way!" Jack shouted.

"I'm afraid, Jack, that you are no longer entitled to tell me off."

**"Yes. He was there for three weeks and, like us, he didn't exactly take to Mr. Sayle. In his first ****reports he described him as short-tempered and unpleasant.**

"He's very fake." Alex agreed.

** But at the same time, he had to admit that everything seemed to be fine. Production was on schedule. The Stormbreakers were coming off the line. And everyone seemed to be happy. **

"While the unicorns galloped and elves danced."

"Shut up Eagle!"

**"But then we got a message. Rider couldn't say very much because it was an open line, but he told us that something had happened. He said he'd discovered something. That the Stormbreakers mustn't leave the plant and that he was coming up to London at once. He left Port Tallon at four o'clock. He never even got to the motorway. He was ambushed in a quiet country lane. The local police found the car. We arranged for it to be brought up here."**

**Alex sat in silence. He could imagine it. A twisting lane with the trees just in blossom. The silver ****BMW gleaming as it raced past. And, around a corner, a second car waiting ..." Why are you ****telling me all this?" he asked. ** _  
><em>

"They must be mad."

**"It proves what we were saying," Blunt replied. "We have our doubts about Sayle so we send a man down. Our best man. He finds out something and he ends up dead. Maybe Rider discovered the truth-"**

**"But I don't understand!" Alex interrupted. "Sayle is giving away the computers. He's not making any money out of them in return, he's getting a medal and British citizenship. Fine-what's he got to hide?"**

**"We don't know," Blunt said. "We just don't know. But we want to find out. And soon. Before these computers leave the plant."**

**"They're being shipped out on 31st March," Mrs. Jones added. "Only about two weeks from now." ****She glanced at Blunt. He nodded. "That's why it's essential for us to send someone else to Port ****Tallon. Someone to continue where your uncle left off."**

**Alex smiled queasily. "I hope you're not looking at me." **

"I think they are Cub. Why are you so reluctant, most teenagers would love to become a mini James Bond." Wolf said.

"Yes it was thriling being Double O Nothing."

**"We can't just send in another agent," Mrs. Jones said. "The enemy has shown his hand. He's killed Rider. He'll be expecting a replacement. Somehow we have to trick him." **

"Send a child in, thats clever especially after they killed the last agent."

**"We have to send someone in who won't be noticed," Blunt continued. "Someone who can look ****around and report back without being seen. We were considering sending down a woman. She ****might be able to slip in as a cleaner or a kitchen helper. But then I had a better idea. **

"It's not better. It's crap." Snake said in shock.

"**A few months ago, one of these computer magazines ran a competition._'Be the first boy or girl to _****_use the Stormbreaker Travel to Port Tallon and meet Herod Sayle himself_ 'That was the first prize and it was won by some young chap who's apparently a bit of a whiz kid when it comes to ****computers. Name of Felix Lester. Fourteen years old. The same age as yourself. He looks a bit like you too. He's expected down at Port Tallon two weeks from now." **

"They're assuming you're going to agree." Wolf frowned.

"They got lucky." Alex lied.

**"Wait a minute-" **

"And the penny drops." Wolf smirked.

**"You've already shown yourself to be extraordinarily brave and resourceful," Blunt said. "First at the breaker's yard ... that was a karate kick, wasn't it?**

"He knew it was. Despite Blunt being many things stupid is not one of them." Alex admitted.

How** long have you been learning karate?" Alex didn't answer so Blunt went on. 'And then there was that little test we arranged for you at the bank. Any boy who would climb out of a fifteenth floor window just to satisfy his own curiosity has to be rather special, and it seems to me that you are very special indeed." **

"Extremely special." Eagle sniggered.

"Our special little Cub." Snake joined in.

Alex took a deep breath and tried his best to ignore them.

**"What we're suggesting is that you come and work for us," Mrs. Jones said. "We have enough time to give you some basic training-not that you'll probably need it-and we can equip you with a few items that may help you with what we have in mind.**

"I hope they weren't expecting what happened to happen." Alex said cryptically.

** Then we'll arrange for you to take the place of this other boy. You'll go to Sayle Enterprises on 29th March. That's when the Lester boy is expected. ****You'll stay there until April first which is the day of the ceremony. The timing couldn't be better. ****You'll be able to meet Herod Sayle, keep an eye on him, tell us what you think. Perhaps you'll also find out what it was that your uncle discovered and why he had to die for it. You shouldn't be ****in any danger. After all, who would suspect a fourteen – year old boy of being a spy?" **

"No one. Its too ridiculous." Wolf said. Ben nodded in agreement.

**"All we're asking you to do is to report back to us," Blunt said. "That's all we're asking. Two weeks of your time. A chance to make sure these computers are everything they're cracked up to be. A chance to serve your country."**

**Blunt had finished his lunch. His plate was completely clean, as if there had never been any food on it at all. He put down his knife and fork, laying them precisely side by side. "All right, Alex," he said. ****"So what do you say?"**

**There was a long pause.**

**Blunt was watching him with polite interest. Mrs. Jones was unwrapping yet another peppermint, her black eyes seemingly fixed on the twist of paper in her hands.**

**"No," Alex said. **

"No?" Wolf muttered.

"I don't want to be a spy." Alex grouched.

"But you came to training."

**"I'm sorry?"**

**"It's a dumb idea. I don't want to be a spy. I want to be a footballer. Anyway, I have a life of my own." He found it difficult to choose the right words. The whole thing was so preposterous he almost wanted to laugh. "Why don't you ask this Felix Lester to snoop around for you?" **

"You said no?" Jack asked.

**"We don't believe he'd be as resourceful as you," Blunt said.**

**"He's probably better at computer games." Alex shook his head. "I'm sorry. I'm just not interested. I don't want to get involved." **

Jack was gaping like a fish. Why did he go then?

**"That's a pity," Blunt said. His tone of voice hadn't changed, but there was a heavy, dead quality to the words. And there was something different about him. Throughout the meal he had been polite not friendly but at least human. In an instant that had disappeared. Alex thought of a toilet chain being pulled. The human part of him had just been flushed away. **

"Creepy." Eagle said.

"You have no idea." Alex agreed.

**"We'd better move on then to discuss your future," he continued. "Like it or not, Alex, the Royal and General is now your legal guardian." **

"They didn't." Ben said in disbelief.

"What?" Eagle asked.

**"I thought you said the Royal and General didn't exist."**

**Blunt ignored him. "Ian Rider has, of course, left the house and all his money to you. However, he left it in trust until you are twenty-one. And we control that trust. So there will, I'm afraid, have to be some changes.**

"They did didn't they?" Ben asked.

"What?" Eagle whined.

** The American girl who lives with you-"**

**"Jack?"**

**"Miss Starbright. Her visa has expired. She'll be returned to America.**

"Alex... I didn't realize." Jack murmured.

"Save it. It makes no difference Alex said emotionlessly.

** We propose to put the house on the market. Unfortunately, you have no relatives who would be prepared to look after you, so I'm afraid that also means you'll have to leave Brookland. You'll be sent to an institution. There's one I know just outside Birmingham. The Saint Elizabeth in Sourbridge. Not a very pleasant place, but I'm afraid there's no alternative." **

"I can't believe they blackmailed you!" Ben shouted.

"Its barbaric." Snake muttered.

"How could they?" Wolf said in shock.

**"You're blackmailing me!" Alex exclaimed.**

**"Not at all." **

"Seems like it to me." Wolf said.

**"But if I agreed to do what you asked ... ?"**

**Blunt glanced at Mrs. Jones. "Help us and we'll help you," she said.**

Alex sighed. They really had ruined his life.

**Alex considered, but not for very long. He had no choice and he knew it. Not when these people ****controlled his money, his present life, his entire future. "You talked about training," he said.**

**Mrs. Jones nodded. "Felix Lester is expected at Port Tallon in two weeks," she said. "That doesn't give us very much time. But it's also why we brought you here, Alex. This is a training center. If you agree to what we want, we can start at once."**

**"Start at once." Alex spoke the three words without liking the sound of them. Blunt and Mrs Jones were waiting for his answer. He sighed.**

**"Yeah. All right. It doesn't look like I've got very much choice." **

"You didn't." Ben agreed.

**He glanced at the slices of cold lamb on his plate. Dead meat. Suddenly he knew how it felt. **

"You know its bad when you relate to your dinner." Eagle joked.

A car horn was heard.

"Thats my taxi," Jack sighed. "I'm sorry Alex."

"Bye Jack." He said sadly.

He waited until the sound of tyres had died away before putting on a fake smile, "Whi wants to read next?"

* * *

><p><em> that chapter was a monster. My fingers are knackered it was over 5k! Anyway sorry if it seemed rushed, it was all typed then I lost it, and it can get rather tedious rewriting it.<em>

_i dont own Alex rider._

_Thanks for all the reviews and favs and alerts and pms and poll votes! You guys are the BEST!_


	6. DOUBLE 0 NOTHING

**"**Cub? Are you, I mean are you ok?" Wolf stuttered.

"Yeah, I understand where she's coming from." Alex sighed.

"You do?" Snake said shocked.

"Of course, it's too dangerous to be around me." Alex sighed before tossed the book at Ben. "You can read."

Ben realised that Alex didn't want to talk and began to read.

**DOUBLE 0 NOTHING **

"Look Alex, I'm sorry in advance." Ben said.

"It's ok." Alex sighed.

**For the hundredth time, Alex cursed Alan Blunt using a language he hadn't even realized he knew.**

"Shame it didn't work." Alex said sadly. How he wished Alan Blunt had been cursed.

** It was almost five o'clock in the evening, although it could have been five o'clock in the morning: the sky had barely changed at all throughout the day. It was grey, cold, unforgiving.**

"Sometimes I wonder if I'd take that over the blistering heat." Eagle sighed.

"Would you?" Alex said.

"Never." Eagle said loosing the fake wondering expression. "I'd rather be boiling hot than freezing cold on the verge of hypothermia."

** The rain was still falling, a thin drizzle that travelled horizontally in the wind, soaking through his supposedly waterproof clothing,**

"Yours weren't?" Ben asked worried.

"No, were yours?" Alex asked.

"Of course." Ben said. " Alex, you should have said something you could have gotten very ill."

"You would have called me a wuss if I had dared say anything." Alex scowled.

Ben didn't reply, as he and the rest of the men realised that Alex was correct.

** mixing with his sweat and dirt, chilling him to the bone. **

Snake began to look guilty. He wished they had invited Alex to sit around the campfire that they had finally managed to get going, with the help of Alex's matches.

**He unfolded his map and checked his position once again. He had to be close to the last RV of the day - the last rendezvous point - but he could see nothing.**

"Did you get lost?" Ben asked him tensly.

"No. Luckily I manages to stay on the right paths." Alex said.

** He was standing on a narrow track made up of loose grey shingle that crunched under his combat boots when he walked.**

"My poor feet had blisters the size of England after that." Alex moaned.

"Yeah, well mine were the size of the entire uk." Eagle said.

** The track snaked round the side of a mountain with a sheer drop to the right. He was somewhere in the Brecons Beacons and there should have been a view, but it had wiped out by the rain and the fading light.**

"That's a shame." Wolf said.

"Yeah." Snake agreed. "The view is really quite spectacular, when it is visible."

** A few trees twisted out of the side of the hill, with leaves as hard as thorns. Behind him, below him, ahead of him, it was all the same. Nowhere Land. **

"Ain't that the truth." Ben chuckled.

"I assume there's a storybehind that?" Alex said.

"Of course, when we were first pit together into K Unit, we detested eachother. Wolf was too bossy and Eagle was unbelievably annoying." Ben began.

"Fox was too much of a smartarse and Snake- well no one had any problems with him except we couldn't really understand his accent." Wolf inputted.

"So when we were on our first group hike, we all decided that our own route was the best." Ben continued.

"We all ended up kilometres apart in the middle of nowhere and had to be rescued." Eagle admitted.

"Of course for days only Fox and I would admit that we got lost. Eagle and Wolf kept arguing that they got back to camp." Snake chuckled.

"So what happened?" Alex asked.

"The sergeant set us all straight, we were told the only reason we weren't binned was 'cause it happened to almost every newly put together unit." Ben laughed.

Alex grinned at the misfortune.

**Alex hurt. The 10- kilogram Bergen rucksack he had been forced to wear cut into his shoulders and had rubbed blisters on his back.**

Alex frowned slightly remembering the agony of that day. It want something he liked to remember.

** His right knee, where he had fallen earlier in the day, was no longer bleeding but still stung.**

"That happened to my elbow once." Eagle sighed.

"Yes. But unlike Cub, you complained about it for days." Wolf muttered.

Alex was sure that Wolf had just complimented him in a strange way.

** His shoulder was bruised and there was a gash along the side of his neck.**

"How on earth did you manage to do that?" Snake said, stunned.

"I'm not exactly sure." Alex said.

"You're joking." Wolf said flatly.

"No, it just seemed to appear. I can't remember cutting it." Alex said truthfully.

** His camouflage outfit- he had swapped his Gap combat trousers for the real thing - fitted him badly, cutting his legs and under his arms but hanging loose everywhere else. **

"You make it sound like you purposefully got an awful outfit." Wolf rolled his eyes.

"Didn't I?" Alex enquired.

"Well yes, but it wasn't as terrible as you're making it out to be." Wolf huffed.

**He was close to exhaustion, he knew, almost too tired to feel how much pain he was in. But for the glucose and caffeine tablets in his survival pack, he would have ground to a halt hours ago. He knew that if he didn't find the RV soon he would be physically unable to continue. Then he would be thrown off the course. "Binned" as they called it. They would like that.**

"So would you." Ben murmured.

"Yeah, you're right." Alex sighed.

"Do you reckon, the sargeant would've binned you had you done something absolutely awful?" Eagle asked.

"Probably not, unless whatever it was offended MI6 too." Alex said**.**

** Swallowing down the taste of defeat, Alex folded the map and forced himself on.**

"You got guts kid, I'll give you that." Wolf smirked.

"I had to to look at your ugly mug every day." Alex retaliated.

"I'm gonna kill you, one day."

**It was his ninth - or maybe his tenth - day of training. Time had begun to dissolve into itself, as shapeless as the rain.**

"My English teacher was over the moon when I wrote that in a essay." Alex chuckled.

"I'll bet she was. You sure do have a way with words." Snake chuckled.

** After his lunch with Alan Blunt and Mrs Jones, he had been moved out of the manor house and into a crude wooden hut in the training camp a few miles away. There were nine huts in total, each equipped with four metal beds and four metal lockers. A fifth had been squeezed into one of them to accomodate Alex.**

"Those place were cramped enough even with out your cralagging everywhere." Solf grumped.

"I left my boots beside my bed once." Alex raised his eyebrows.

"And that one time was the time I tripped over them." Wolf argued.

"That was only because you were going to throw water on me to wake me up." Alex huffed.

"You were sleeping like a dead man."

"You're just bitter cos the water landed on you instead of me." Alex laughed, much to the annoyance of Wolf.

** Two more huts, painted a different colour, stood side by side. One of these was the kitchen and mess hall. The other contained toilets, sinks and showers - with not a single hot tap in sight. **

"That sure woke me up in the mornings." Eagle said.

**On his first day there, alex had been introduced to his training officer, an incredibly fit black sergeant. He was the sort of man who thought he'd seen everything. Until he saw Alex.**

"To be fair, no one expected a teenager." Fox said.

** And he examined the new arrival for a long minute before he had spoken.**

**"It's not my job to ask questions," he said. "But if it was, I'd want to know what they're thinking of, sending me children.**

"I think the whole camp wanted to ask that." Snake admitted.

"Even though I know, I still don't understand the logic." Eagle sighed.

** Do you have any idea where you are, boy? This isn't Butlins. This isn't the Club Méditerranée" he cut the word into its five syllables and spat them out. "I have you for eleven days and they expect me to give you the type of training that should take fourteen weeks. That's not just mad. That's suicidal." **

"Completely." Wolf sighed. "We were all suprised you managed to survive the whole eleven days."

**"I didn't ask to be here," Alex had said. **

"You shouldn't have said that." Eagle said excitedly.

"I am honestly suprised that you can still hear." Snake said.

**Suddenly the sergeant was furious. "You don't speak to me unless I give you permission," he shouted. "And when you speak to me, you address me as 'sir'. Do you understand?"**

**"Yes, sir." Alex has already decided that the man was even worse than his geography teacher. **

"I didn't think it was possible until I saw it." Alex chuckled.

**"There are five units operational here at the moment," the officer went on. "You'll join K Unit. As the sergeant had predicted, they weren't exactly overjoyed to see him. **

K Unit and Ben exchanged guilty looks. Maybe they had been a bit too hard on the kid. After all it wasn't his choice to be there.

**There were four of them. As Alex was soon to discover, the Special Operations Division of MI6 sent its agents to the same training centre used by the Special Air Service - the SAS. Much of the training was based on SAS methods and this included the numbers and make-up of each team. So there was four men, each with their own special skills. And one boy, seemingly with none. **

Alex snorted. If only they knew what he could really do.

**They were all in their mid-twenties, spread out over the bunks in companionable silence. Two of them smoking. One dismantling and reassembling his gun - a 9mm Browning High Power pistol. Each of them had been given a code name: Wolf, Fox, Eagle and Snake. From now on, Alex would be known as Cub.**

"Aw, ickle cubbykins." Eagle cooed.

"I will choke you to death." Cub promised.

** The leader, Wolf, was the one with the gun. He was short and muscular with square shoulders as black, close cropped hair. He had a handsome face, made slightly uneven by his nose, which had been broken at some time in the past. **

"Oh, it has." wolf said.

"Ha, was it the time when you..."

"Shut it Eagle." Wolf growled.

"What happened?" Alex asked eagerly.

"We all went paintballing in Scotland, on Snake's birthday." Wolf explained. "I decided to climb a tree and it was a bit too weak. Next thing I knew I was lying flat on my back on the ground with my gun falling towards my nose."

Alex laughed hysterically at the sullen look on the team leader's face.

**He was the first to speak. Putting the gun down, he examined Alex with cold, dark-grey eyes. "So who the hell do you think you are?" he demanded.**

**"Cub," Alex replied.**

**"A bloody schoolboy!" Wolf spoke with a strange, slightly foreign accent.**

"Spanish." Wolf muttered.

"You're from Spain?" Alex inquired.

"My Mother was Spanish but my father was English. I moved here at a young age but the Spanish accent has never fully left me."

** "I don't believe it. Are you with Special Operations?" **

"Did you really expect an answer?" Ben said wryly.

"It was a kid, he could have mucked up and told the full truth."

**"I'm not allowed to tell you that." Alex went over to his bunk and sat down. The mattress felt as solid as the frame.**

"Yet feels like feathers after a long day." Snake chuckled.

"What feathers do you know, that feel like bricks?" Eagle joked.

** Despite the cold, there was only one blanket.**

**Wolf shook his head and smiled humourlessly. "Look what they've sent us," he muttered. "Double 0 Seven? Double 0 Nothing more like." ** **  
><strong>

Alex winced slightly at the nickname. Oh, how he resented being called that when he had saved their hides many times.

**After that, the name stuck. Double 0 Nothing was what they called him. **

Nothing. Exactly what he meant to them... To Jack.

"I'm so sorry Alex." Ben said remorsefully.

"it's ok." Alex said stiffly. "It's all in the past."

**In the days that followed, Alex shadowed the group, not quite part of it but never far away. Almost everything they did, he did. He learned map-reading, radio communication and first aid. He took part in unarmed combat class and was knocked to the ground so often that it took all his nerve to persuade himself to get back up again. **

Wolf shook his head. Why didn't the kid take the hint and leave. He could've had a happy life.

**And then there was the assault course. Five times he was shouted and bullied across the nightmare of nets and ladders, tunnels and ditches, swinging tightropes and towering walls, that stretched for almost half a kilometre through, and over, the woodland beside the huts. Alex thought of it as the adventure playground from hell. **

"I don't think parents would even let their kids go near that monster." Snake chuckled.

"I like it." Wolf frowned**. **

** The first time he tried it, he fell off a rope and into a pit that seemed to have been filled on purpose with freezing slime.**

"It was." Ben muttered.

"Why?" Alex moaned.

"To give people a reason not to fall." He said, looking amused at Alex's whining.

** Half-drowned and filthy, he had been sent back to the start by the sergeant. Alex thought he would never get to the end, but the second time he finished it in twenty-five minutes - which he cut down to seventeen minutes by the end of the week.**

"That was pretty impressive for a kid." wolf admitted grudgingly.

** Bruised and exhausted though he was, he was quietly pleased with himself. Even Wolf only manged it in twelve. **

"Only he says!" Eagle laughed.

"Twelve is a damn good time." wolf said affronted.

**Wolf remained actively hostile towards Alex.**

"That's putting it lightly." Alex griped.

"What do you mean?" Ben asked worriedly.

"Nothing."

** The other three men simply ignored him, but Wolf did everything he could to taunt or humiliate him. It was as if Alex had somehow insulted him by being placed in the group. Once, crawling under the nets, Wolf lashed out with his foot, missing Alex's face by a centimetre.**

"Wolf!" Ben snarled.

** Of course he would have said it was an accident if the boot had connected. Another time he was more successful, tripping Alex up in the mess hall and sending him flying, along with his tray, cutlery and steaming plate of stew. And every time he spoke to Alex, he used the same sneering tone of voice.**

**"Goodnight, Double 0 Nothing. Don't wet the bed." **

Alex grimaced. Nothing he did impressed them, nobody cared.

**Alex bit his lip and said nothing. But he was glad when the men were sent off for a day's jungle survival course - this wasn't part of his training - even though the sergeant worked him twice as hard once they were gone. He preferred to be on his own. **

"I really am sorry Alex." Ben sighed, moving to sit next to the silent teen.

**But on the eighth day, Wolf did come close to finishing him altogether. It happened in the killing house. **

"What does that mean?" Eagle asked. "Even you have to admit, that one was your fault Cub."

Alex and Wolf stated at eachother, Wolf realised the truth was about to come out and paled slightly.

**The Killing House was a fake; a mock-up of an embassy use to train the SAS in the art of hostage release. Alex had twice watched K Unit go into the house, the first time swinging down from the roof, and had followed their progress on closed circuit TV. All four men were armed. Alex himself didn't take part because someone somewhere ha decided he shouldn't carry a gun.**

Alex huffed slightly, causing Ben to grin. Alex had always been so careful, soago see him acting like a real teenager was strangely refreshing.

** Inside the killing house, mannequins had beeare arranged as terrorists and hostages. Smashing down doors and using stun grenades to clear the rooms with deafening, multiple blasts, Wolf, Fox, Eagle and Snake had successfully completed their mission both times. **

"How did you manage to set off the tripwire?" Snake asked exasperated. "We were all over it, all you had to do was climb out the window."

**This time Alex had joined them. The Killing House had been booby-trapped. They weren't told how. All five of them were unarmed. Their job was simply to get from one end of the house to the other without being "killed".**

**They almost made it.**

"Technically, we all made it." Eagle pointed out.

Alex growled something incomprehensible under his breath.

** In the first room, made up to look like a huge dining-room, they found the pressure pads under the carpet and the infrared beams across the doors. For Alex it was an eerie experience, tiptoeing behind the other four men, watching as they dismantled the two devices, using cigarette smoke to expose the otherwise invisible beams. It was strange to be afraid of everything yet see nothing.**

Ben nodded. It really was.

** In the hallway there was a motion detector which would have activated a machine-gun (Alex assumed it was loaded with blanks) behind a Japenese screen.**

"They couldn't exactly use real bullets could they?" Wolf drawled.

Alex bit his tongue.

** The third room was empty. The fourth was a living room with the exit - a set of French windows on the other side. There was a trip-wire, barely thicker than a human hair, running the entire width of the room, and te French windows were alarmed. While Snake dealt with the alarm, Fox and Eagle prepared to neutralise the trip-wire, unclipping an electronic circuit board and a variety of tools from their belts.**

**Wolf stopped them. "Leave it. We're out of here." at the same moment Snake signalled. He had deactivated the alarm. The French windows were open. **

Alex stated at Wolf, realising what was about to come up shortly.

**Snake was the first out. Then Fox and Eagle. Alex would have been the last to leave the room, but just as he reached the exit he found wolf blocking his way. **

"Wolf?" Snake frowned.

"What the hell went on in there?" Eagle hissed.

Realisation struck Ben. "You didn't..."

** "Tough luck, Double 0 Nothing," Wolf said. His voice was soft, almost kind. **

"Wolf? Kind? Something's definately up." Eagle said.

**The next thing Alex knew, the heel of Wolf's palm had rammed into his chest, pushing him back with astonishing force.**

"You asshole." Ben snapped.

"I'm sorry, Cub." Wolf said.

"We could've been binned because of that, that's what you told us."

"He's a kid! He doesn't belong in the SAS!"

"He wasn't in the SAS, he just joined us to help his skills. We could've caused him to die if we hadnt even let him participate!"

"He doesn't belong in this world." Wolf said. His tone put a stop to the conversation .

** Taken by suprise he lost his balance and fell, remembered the tripwire and tried to twist his body to avoid it. But it was hopeless. His flailing left hand caught the wire. He actually felt it against his wrist.**

"So close to missing it." Alex murmured quietly.

** He hit the floor pulling the wire with him. And then...**

**The HRT stun grenade has been used frequently by the SAS. It's a small device filled with a mixture of magnesium powder and mercury fulminate. When the trip-wire activated the grenade, the mercuryexploded at once, not just deafening Alex but shuddering through him as if it could rip out his heart. At the same time, the magnesium ignited and burned for a full ten seconds. The light was so blinding that even closing his eyes made no difference. Alex lay there with his face against the wooden floor, his hand scrabbling against his head, unable to move, waiting for it to end. **

Ben was absolutely furious. How could Wolf do that? Didn't he care at all about Alex's wellbeing?

**But even ten it wasn't over. When the magnesium finally burned out, it was as if all the light had burned out with it. Alex stumbled to his feet, unable to see or hear, not even sure anymore where he was. He felt sick to his stomach. The room swayed around him. The heavy smell of chemicals hung in the air. **

"Not an experience I'd recommend." Alex said lightly.

**Ten minutes later he staggered out into the open. Wolf was waiting for him with the others, his face blank, and Alez realized he must have slipped out before he'd hit the ground. An angry sergeant walked over to him. Alex hadn't expected to see a shred of concern in the man's face and he wasn't disappointed.**

**"Do you want to tell me what happened in there, Cub?" he demanded. When Alex didn't answer, he went on. "You ruined the excercise. You fouled up. You could get the whole unit binned. So you better start telling me what went wrong."**

**Alex glanced at Wolf. Wolf looked the other way. What should he say? Should he even try to tell the truth? **

Alex was secretly glad he hadn't. If he had said something, Wolf may have. Een binned and then he wouldn't have been able to help Alex at Point Blanc.

**"Well?" The sergeant was waiting.**

**"Nothing happened, sir," Alex said. "I just wasn't looking where I was going. I stepped on something and there was an explosion." **

"I gotta hand it to you kid," Snake chuckled. "You're one hell of an actor."

Alex smiled wryly. "I have some experience."

"What? Were you Romeo in a school play?" Wolf asked sarcastically.

"Macbeth actually." Alex said.

**"If that was real life, you'd be dead," the sergeant said. "What did I tell you? Sending me a child was a mistake. A stupid, clumsy child who doesn't look where he's going ... that's even worse?" **

"Ouch." Alex sighed.

He had been called many things during his life, however clumsy was never one of them.

**Alex stood where he was, just taking it. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Wolf half-smiling. **

The rest of the team seemed upset by this, especially Eagle. After seeing Alex's questioning look he whispered. "I joined the SAS to protect kids, my twelve year old brother was killed in a suicide bombing."

Alex just nodded shocked. For some reason he never imagined these men having private lives.

**The sergeant had seen it too. "You think it's so funny, Wolf? You can go clean up in there. And the rest of you'd better get some rest. All of you. Because tomorrow you've got a forty kilometre hike. Survival rations. No fire. This is a survival course. An if you do survive, then maybe you'll have a reason to smile." **

"Such a comedian." Ben sighed.

**Alex remembered the words now, exactly twenty-four hours later. He had spent the last eleven of them on his feet, following the trail the sergeant has set out for him on te map. The excercise had began at six o'clock in the morning after a grey-lit breakfast of sausages and beans. Wolf and the others had disappeared into the distance ahead of him a long time ago,**

"Look on the bright side, you don't have to pitch your tent." Snake smiled.

Alex grinned.

** even though they had been given 25-kilogram rucksacks to carry. They had also been given only eight hours to complete the course. Allowing for his age, Alex had been given twelve. **

Alex smiled at the jealous expressions on the men's faces.

**He rounded a corner, his feet scrunching on the gravel. There was someone standing ahead of him. It was the sergeant. He had just lit a cigarette and Alex watched him slide the matches back into his pocket.**

"You didn't." Ben whispered, too quietly for the others to hear.

"Of course I did." Alex replied.

"You're very lucky he never worked it out."

"I know."

** Seeing him there brought back the shame and anger of the day before and at the same time sapped the lay of his strength. Suddenly Alex had had enough of Blunt, Mrs Jones, Wolf... the whole stupid thing.**

"I think you dealt with it all pretty well, I wouldn't have been able to at fourteen." Ben admitted.

** With a final effort he stumbled the last hundred metres and came to a halt. Rain and sweat trickled down the sidsmog his face. His hair, now dark with grime, was glued across his forehead. **

Eagle snorted.

**The sergeant looked at his watch. "Eleven hours, five minutes. That's not bad Cub. But the others were here three hours ago."**

**Bully for them, Alex thought. He didn't say anything. **

"You really don't care anymore?" Eagle muttered.

"I did say I'd had enough didn't I?"

**"Anyway, you should just make it to the last RV," the sergeant went on. "It's up there." **

**He pointed to a wall. Not a sloping wall. A sheer one. Solid rock rising fifty metres up without a handhold or foothold in sight. Even looking at it, Alex felt his stomach shrink. Ian Rider had taken him climbing - in Scotland, in France, all over Europe. But he had never attempted anything as difficult as this. Not on his own. Not when he was so tired. **

Wolf bit his tongue. He would've made a snide comment, but the shame and embarrassment on Cub's face stopped him.

**"I can't," he said. In the end the two words came out easily. **

'Too easily' Alex thought

**"I didn't hear that," the sergeant said. **

"Bit young to start loosing his hearing." Eagle muttered.

**"I said, I can't do it, sir."**

**"Can't isn't a word we use around here." **

**"I don't care. I've had enough. I've just had..." Alex's voice cracked. He didn't trust himself to go on. He stood there, cold and empty, waiting for the axe to fall. **

Ben and Snake both felt furious at had managed to break the kid, just like they'd wanted. It didn't feel as great as they'd hoped.

**But it didn't. The sergeant gazed at him for a long minute. He nodded his head slowly. "Listen to me, Cub," he said. "I know what happened in the Killing House." **

Wolf paled slightly.

**Alex glanced up.**

**"Wolf forgot about the closed circuit TV. We've got it all on film." **

"Oh sh-"

"Language!" Ben snapped**.**

**"Then why -?" Alex began.**

**"Did you make a complaint against him, Cub?" **

**"No, sir."**

**"Do you want to make a complaint against him, Cub?" **

**A pause. Then, "No, sir." **

Wolf paused slightly. Why was the kid so... nice. He'd been an absolute ass to him but he took it and didn't complain. He'd purposefully tried to hurt him, get him binned and yet he still didn't complain.

**"Good." the sergeant pointed at the rock face, suggesting a path up with his finger. "It's not a difficult as it looks," he said. "And they're waiting for you just over the top. You've got a nice cold dinner. Survival rations. You don't want to miss that." **

"Who knew he could be nice?" Ben chuckled.

**Alex drew a deep breath and started forward. As he passed the sergeant, he stumbled and put out a hand to steady himself, brushing against him. "Sorry, sir," he said. **

"You must have been knackered."

**It took him twenty minutes to reach the top and, sure enough, K Unit was already there, crouching around three small tents that they must have pitched earlier in the afternoon. Two for two men sharing. One, the smallest one, for Alex. **

"It was bloody freezing on my own." Alex frowned.

"I guess that cold have been thought through better." Snake admitted.

**Snake, a thin, fair-haired man with spoke with a Scottish accent, looked up at Alex. He had a tin of cold stew in one hand, a teaspoon in te other.**

**"I didn't think you'd make it," he said. Alex couldn't help but notice a certain warmth in the man's voice. And for the first time he hadn't called his Double 0 Nothing. **

Snake blushed slightly at the obvious happiness form Alex.

**"Nor did I," Alex said.**

**Wolf was squatting over what he hoped would become a camp fire, trying to get it started with two flints while Fox and Eagle watched. He was getting nowhere. The stones only produced the smallest of sparks, and the scraps of newspaper and leaves that he had collected were already far too wet. Wolf struck at the stones again and again. The others watched, their faces glum.**

**Alex held out the box of matches that he had pick-pocketed from the sergeant when he had pretended to stumble at the foot of the rock face. **

"You didn't!"

"Wow."

"What the hell."

"You really are crazy Alex."

**"These might help," he said.**

**He threw the matches down, then he went into his tent. **

The book was then thrown onto the table. They all exchanged silent looks. Ben sighed realising noone was willing to discuss what had taken place at BB then grabbed the book.

* * *

><p><em>An<em>

_Sorry forthe delay, I'm back at school and knackered. I'm going to sleep now :) but first, thanks for all the reviews! We reached 100! You guys are awesome. Sorry for the bad mistakes in this chapter. I'm falling asleep as I type but I didn't want to keep you waiting to much._

_I don't own Alex rider _

_;)_


	7. TOYS AREN'T US

Eagle picked up the book and turned to the next chapter.

**TOYS AREN'T US **

"Huh? Like the shop?" Snake asked.

"No it says Toys AREN'T us not Toys R us."

**In the London office, Mrs Jones sat waiting while Alan Blunt read the report. The sun was shining. A pigeon was strutting back and forth along the ledge outside as if keeping guard. **

"A lovely day." Alex said sarcastically.

**"He's doing very well," Blunt said at last. "Remarkably well, in fact." He turned a page. "I see he missed target practice." **

"It's not like you were even going to give me a gun arsehole."

**"Were you planning to give him a gun?" Mrs Jones asked.**

**"No. I don't think that would be a good idea." **

"For once I agree with the man." Ben sighed.

"What? Why?" Alex whined.

"Because, Alex, you were only fourteen."

**"Then why does be need target practice?" **

Alex sulked silently.

**Blunt raised an eyebrow. "We can't give a teenager a gun," he said. "On the other hand, I don't think we can send him to Port Tallon empty-handed. You'd better have a word with Smithers." **

Alex's lips twitched out of his pout and into a smile, he loved getting gadgets.

**"I already have. He's working on it now."**

**Mrs Jones stood up as if to leave. But at the door she hesitated. "I wonder if it's occurred to you that Rider may have been preparing him for this all along," she said. **

"No... surely your Uncle wouldn't have wanted you to get yourself killed." Snake said

**"What do you mean?" **

"Isn't it obvious?" Wolf snarked.

**"Preparing Alex to replace him. Ever since the boy was old enough to walk, he's been in training for intelligence work ... but without knowing it. I mean, he's lived abroad, so he now speaks French, German and Spanish. He's been mountain-climbing, diving and skiing. He's learned karate. Physically he's in perfect shape." She shrugged. "I think Rider wanted Alex to become a spy." **

"I can't believe he'd do that! To his own flesh and blood!" Ben sneered.

**"But not so soon," Blunt said.**

**"I agree. You know as well as I do, Alan - he's not ready yet. If we send him into Sayle enterprises, he's going to get himself killed." **

"But they did it anyway." Alex murmured almost silently.

**"Perhaps." The single word was cold, matter-of-fact. **

This did not come as a shock to Alex, but K - Unit however, were disgusted.

**"He's fourteen years old! We can't do it." **

"At least someone has morals." Eagle sniped.

**"We have to." Blunt stood up and opened the window, letting in the air and the sound of the traffic. The pigeon hurled itself off the ledge, afraid of him. "This whole business worries me," he said. "The Prime Minister see the Stormbreaker as a major coup, for himself and for him Government. But there's still something about Herod Sayle that I don't like. Did you tell the boy about Yassen Gregorovich?" **

"Who's he?" Snake queried.

"No one." Alex said bitterly.

**"No." Mrs Jones shook her head.**

**"Then it's time you did. It was Yassen who killed his uncle.**

"No one." Wolf repeated sarcastically.

**I'm sure of it. And if Yassen was working for Sayle-"**

**"What will you do if Yassen kills Alex Rider?" **

"Yes, what would you do arsehole?" Ben muttered

**"That's not our problem, Mrs Jones.**

"Not their problem?" Snake gasped, "Of course its your problem, it's a boy's life not a play thing."

** If the boy gets himself killed, it will be the final proof that something is wrong.**

"Proof, thats all they care about?"

** At the very least it'll allow me to postpone the Stormbreaker project and take a good, hard look at what's going on at Port Tallon. In a way, it would almost help us if he _was_ killed." **

"It was be extremely helpful." Wolf muttered.

"Yeah, him dying would be the best thing ever." Eagle said.

**"The boy's not ready yet. He'll make mistakes. It won't take them long to find out who he is." Mrs Jones sighed. "I don't think Alex has got much chance at all." **

"Thanks for the faith." Alex growled.

"Did you have a chance?" Eagle asked, getting side-tracked.

"I'm sitting right here, aren't I?"

**"I agree." Blunt turned back from the window. The sun slanted over his shoulder. A single shadow fell across his face. "But it's too late to worry about that now. Stop the training. Send him in." **

"That's why you left so suddenly." Snake realised.

**Alex sat hunched up in the back of the low-flying C-130 military aircraft, his stomach churning behind his knees. There were twelve men sitting in two lines around him - his own unit and two others. For an hour now, the plane had been flying at just one hundred metres, following the Welsh valleys, dipping and swerving to avoid the mountain peaks. A single bulb glowed red behind a wire mesh, adding to the heat in the cramped cabin. Alex could feel the engines vibrating through him. It was like travelling in a spin-dryer and microwave combined. **

Eagle snickered. Alex failed to see what was so amusing.

**The thought of jumping out of a plane with an over sized silk** **umbrella**

Ben snorted.

** would have made Alex sick with fear - but only that morning he'd been told that he wouldn't in fact be jumping himself. A signal from London. They couldn't risk him breaking a leg, it said,and Alex guessed the end of his training was near. Even so, he'd been taught how to pack a parachute, how to control it, how to exit a plane and how to land, and at the end of the day the sergeant had instructed him to join the flight- just for the experience. Now, close to the drop zone, Alex felt almost disappointed.**

"Poor you," Wolf muttered sarcastically.

Alex snickered at him.

** He'd watch everyone else jump and then he'd be left alone. **

"I suppose that is disappointing." Ben conceded.

**"P minus five..."**

**The voice of the pilot came over the speaker system, distant and metallic. Alex gritted his teeth. Five minutes until the jump. He looked at the other men, shuffling into position, checking the chords that connected them to the static line. He was sitting next to Wolf. To his surprise, the man was completely quiet, unmoving. It was hard to tell in the half-darkness, but the look on his face could almost have been fear.**

The rest of the unit looked at their leader in shock, he had been scared?

**There was a loud buzz and the red light turned green.**

"Woo! Time to jump." Eagle said with bright eyes.

** The assistant pilot had climbed through from the cockpit. He reached for the handle and pulled open a door set in the back of the aircraft, allowing the cold air to rush in. Alex could see a single square of night. It was raining. The rain howled past. **

"Perfect night for it." Snake chuckled.

**The green light began to flash. The assistant pilot tapped the first pair on their shoulders and Alex watched them shuffle over to the side and then throw themselves out. For a moment they were there, frozen in the doorway. Then they were gone, like a photograph crumpled and spun away by the wind. Two more men followed. Then another two, until only the final pair had still to jump.**

**Alex glanced at Wolf, who seemed to be struggling with a piece of equipment.**

"Struggling? You can sort your equipment with your eyes closed." Eagle said shocked.

** His partner was moving to the door without him, but Wolf still didn't look up.**

**The other man jumped. Suddenly Alex was aware that only he and Wolf were left.**

**"Move it!" the assistant pilot shouted above the roar of the engines. **

"Charming bloke." Alex said, stretching his legs out.

**Wolf picked himself up. His eyes briefly met Alex's and in that moment Alex knew. Wolf was a popular leader. He was tough and he was fast, completing a forty-kilometre hike as if it was just a stroll in the park. But he had a weak spot.**

The whole team alternated between looking at Wolf, Alex or the floor.

** Somehow he'd allowed this parachute jump to get to him and he was too scared to move. It was hard to believe, but there he was, frozen in the doorway, his arms rigid, staring out.**

Wolf gritted his teeth.

"Everyone has their weaknesses, Wolf." Ben said softly, and the subject was dropped, for the sake of Wolf's pride.

** Alex glanced back. The assistant pilot was looking the other way. He hadn't seen what was happening. And when he did? If Wolf failed to make the jump, it would be the end of his training, maybe even the end of his career. Even hesitating would be bad enough. He'd be binned. **

Wolf winced. Yep, that would've happened for sure.

**Alex thought for a moment. Wolf hadn't moved. Alex could see his shoulders rising and falling as he tried to summon the courage to go. Ten seconds had passed. Maybe more. The assistant pilot was leaning down, stowing away a piece of equipment. Alex stood up. "Wolf," he said.**

**Wolf didn't even hear him.**

**Alex took one last quick look at the assistant pilot , then kicked out with all of his strength . His foot slammed into Wolf's backside. He'd put all of his strength behind it. Wolf was caught by surprise, his hands coming free as he plunged into the swirling night air. **

"That could've been dangerous." Snake frowned.

"It was ok." Alex said.

"But-"

Wolf cut snake off quickly.

"It was fine, _I _was fine." He said.

**The assistant pilot turned round and saw Alex.**

**"What are you doing?" he shouted.**

**"Just stretching my legs," Alex shouted back. **

"Quite high and aggressively." Ben smiled.

**The plane curved in the air and began the journey home.**

**Mrs Jones was waiting for him when he walked into the hangar. She was sitting at a table, wearing a grey silk jacket and trousers with a black handkerchief flowing out her top pocket. For a moment she didn't recognize him. Alex was dressed in a flying suit. His hair damp from the rain. His face was pinched with tiredness and he seemed to have grown older very fast.**

"That's why we thought you were older than 14." Ben explained.

** None of the men had arrived back yet. A truck had been sent to collect them from a field about three kilometres away.**

**"Alex?" She said.**

**Alex looked at her but said nothing. **

"Silent treatment." Eagle smirked.

Alex ignored him.

**"It was my decision to stop you jumping," she said. "I hope you're not disappointed. I just thought it was too much of a risk. Please. Sit down."**

**Alex sat down opposite her.**

**"I have something that might cheer you up," she went on. "I've brought you some toys." **

The whole of K-Unit tried to hide their snorts and laughs.

**"I'm too old for toys," Alex said.**

**"Not these toys."**

**She signalled and a man appeared, walking out of the shadows, carrying a tray of equipment , which he set down on the table. The man was enormously fat. When he sat down, the metal chair disappeared beneath the spread of his buttocks and Alex was surprised it could even take his weight. He was bald, with a black moustache and several chins, each one melting into the next and finally into his neck and shoulders. He wore a pinstriped suit which must have used enough material to make a tent. **

"We get it, the guy's big." Eagle whined.

**"Smithers," he said, nodding at Alex. "Very nice to meet you, old chap."**

**"What have you got for him?" Mrs Jones demanded. **

"No hello." Eagle said sadly.

**"I'm afraid we haven't had a great deal of time, Mrs J," Smithers replied. "The challenge was to think of what a fourteen-year-old might carry with him - to adapt it." He picked up the first object off the tray. A yo-yo. It was slightly larger than normal, made of black plastic. "Let's start with this," Smithers said.**

**Alex shook his head. He couldn't believe any of this. "Don't tell me!" He exclaimed. "It's some sort of secret weapon..." **

"So eager for weapons." Ben said smirking.

**"Not exactly. I was told you weren't to have weapons. You're too young."**

**"So it's not really a hand grenade? Pull the string and run like hell?" **

"Good advertisement." Wolf snorted.

**"Certainly not. It's a yo-yo." Smithers pulled out the string, holding it between a podgy finger and thumb. "However, the string _is_ a special sort of nylon. Very advanced. There are thirty metres of it and it can lift weights of up to one hundred kilograms. The actual yo-yo is motorized and clips onto your belt. Very useful for climbing." **

"That's not so impressive." Snake frowned.

**"Amazing." Alex was unimpressed. **

"Clearly, Alex agrees." Ben muttered.

**"And then there's this."Smithers produced a small tube. Alex read the side: ZIT-CLEAN, FOR HEALTHIER SKIN. "Nothing personal ," Smithers went on apologetically, "but we thought it was something a boy of your age might use. And it is rather remarkable." He opened the tube and squeezed some of the cream on to his finger. "Completely harmless when you touch it. But bring it into contact with metal and it's quite another story." He wiped hi finger, smearing the cream onto the surface of the table. For a moment nothing happened. Then a wisp of acrid smoke twisted upwards into the air, the metal sizzled and a jagged hole appeared.**

"Much better,"Eagle complimented.

** "It'll do that to just about any metal," Smithers explained. "Very useful if you need to break through a lock." He took out a handkerchief and wiped his finger clean. **

**"Anything else?" Mrs Jones asked. **

**"Oh yes, Mrs J. You could say this one is our piece de resistance." He picked up a brightly coloured box that Alex recognized at once as a Nintendo Game Boy Colour. "What teenager would be complete without one of these?" he asked. "This one comes with four games. And the beauty of it is, each game turns the computer into something quite different." **

"Now that, is better." Ben smiled.

**He showed Alex the first game. "If you insert Nemesis, the computer becomes a fax/photocopier which gives you direct contact with us and vice versa." A second game. "Exocet turns the computer into an X-ray device. It has an audio function too. The headphones are useful for eavesdropping. It's not as powerful as I'd like, but we're working on it. Speed Wars is a bug finder. I suggest you use it the moment you get into your room. And finally...Bomber Boy."**

**"Do I get to play that one?" Alex asked.**

**"You can play all four of them. But as the name might suggest, this is actually a smoke bomb. You leave the cartridge some where in a room and press START three times on the console and it will go off. Useful camouflage if you need to escape in a hurry."**

**"Thank you, Smithers," Mrs Jones said.**

**"My pleasure, Mrs J." Smithers stood up, his legs straining to take the huge weight."I'll hope to see you again, Alex. I've never had to equip a boy before. I'm sure I'll be able to think up a whole host of quite delightful ideas."**

"I get the impression, they're not going to let you go easily." Wolf frowned.

"Really?" Alex said.

**He waddled off and disappeared through a door which clanged shut behind him.**

**Mrs Jones turned to Alex. "You leave tomorrow for Port Tallon," she said. "You'll be going under the name of Felix Lester." She handed him a folder. "We've sent the real Felix Lester on holiday in Scotland. You'll find out everything you need to know about him in here." **

"Scotland? That sucks for him, it's so cold, and boring." Eagle whined.

"Excuse me?" Snake glared.

"And it's the best place in the world." Eagle continued, fearfully.

**"I'll read it in bed."**

"A bit of night time reading."

**"Good." Suddenly she was serious and Alex found himself wondering if she herself was a mother. If so, she could well have a son his age. She took a black and white photograph and laid it on the table. It showed a man in a white T-shirt and jeans. He was in his late twenties with blond, close-cropped hair, a smooth face, the body of a dancer. The photograph was slightly blurred. It had been taken from a distance, as if with a hidden camera. "I want you to look at this," she said.**

**"I'm looking." **

**"His name is Yassen Gregorovich.**

"Finally we find out more about this bloke." Snake said, satisfied.

** He was born in Russia but now he works for many countries. Iraq has employed him. Also Serbia, Libya and China."**

**"What does he do?" Alex asked, though looking at the cold face with its blank, hooded eyes, he could almost guess.**

**"He's a contract killer, Alex. We believe he killed Ian Rider." **

"An assassin?" Sanke asked calmly, much calmer than Ben and Wolf.

"A BLOODY ASSASSIN!"

"RUN ALEX, RUN!"

**There was a long pause. Alex stared at the photograph, trying to print it in his mind. **

Ben sighed, would Alex try to get revenge?

**"This photograph was taken six months ago, in Cuba. It may have been a coincidence but Herod Sayle was there at the same time. The two of the may have met. And there is something else." She paused. "Rider used a code in the last message he sent. A single letter.Y."**

**"Y for Yassen." **

"I'm glad kids aren't taught that to learn the alphabet." Ben said with a shudder.

**"He must have seen Yassen somewhere in Port Tallon. He wanted us to know -" **

**"Why are you telling me this now?" Alex asked.**

**"Because if you see him - if Yassen is anywhere near Sayle Enterprises - I want you to contact us at once."**

**"And then?"**

**"We'll pull you out. If Yassen finds out you're working for us, he'll kill you too." **

"Just like they want." Wolf glowered.

**Alex smiled. "I'm too young to interest him," he said.**

**"No." Mrs Jones took the photograph back. "Just remember, Alex Rider, you're never too young to die." **

"Ominous." Ben sighed.

**Alex stood up.**

**"You'll leave tomorrow morning at eight o'clock," Mrs Jones said. "Be careful, Alex. And good luck." **

"Thanks." Alex said softly.

**Alex walked across the hangar, his footsteps echoing. Behind him, Mrs Jones unwrapped a peppermint and slipped it into her mouth. Her breath always smelled faintly of mint. As Head of Special Operations, how many men had she sent to their deaths? Ian Rider and maybe dozens more. Perhaps it was easier for her if her breath was sweet. **

"There's heaps of theories about that," Ben chuckled, "But yours is the most interesting by far."

**There was a movement ahead of him and he saw that the parachutists had got back from their jump. They were walking towards him out of the darkness, with Wolf and the other men from K Unit right at the front. Alex tried to step round them but he found Wolf blocking his way. **

"What now!" Ben said angrily, "He helped you."

"It's ok Ben."

**"You're leaving," Wolf said. Somehow he must have heard that Alex's training was over.**

**"Yes."**

**There was a long pause.**

"AWKWARD!" Eagle shouted suddenly.

** "What happened on the plane..." he began.**

**"Forget it, Wolf," Alex said. "Nothing happened. You jumped and I didn't, that's all." **

"You're a strange kid." Snake said, watching Alex thoughtfully.

**Wolf held out a hand. "I want you to know...I was wrong about you. I'm sorry I gave you such a hard time. But you're all right. And maybe ... one day it would be good to work with you." **

"Wow, an actual apology," Snake mocked.

"Oh, shut it." Wolf muttered.

**"You never know," Alex said. **

Both Wolf and Alex snorted at this.

**They shook.**

**"Good luck, Cub."**

**"Goodbye Wolf."**

**Alex walked out into the night. **

"Well that was interesting." Ben said.

"Actually, I thought it was kind of a boring chapter." Eagle said.

"Maybe the next will satisfy you then." Alex said.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Thanks for all the support with this story.<strong>_

_**Disclaimer : I don't own Alex Rider.**_

_**So what did you think? Sorry for the delay :( Really I am.**_


	8. PHYSALIA PHYSALIS

Alex held the book and shuddered lightly at the chapter title.

"Are you alright?" Ben asked, frowning slightly.

"Fine." Alex said, mentally berating himself for letting his emotions be shown so easily. He was too comfortable around these people.

_**PHYSALIA PHYSALIS**_

"What does that mean?" Eagle asked.

"I'm not sure." Snake said.

"It'll be in the chapter." Alex reassured them blankly. He had, had many nightmares about that bloody jellyfish.

**The silver-grey Mercedes SL600**

"Fancy car." Wolf grinned.

"It was a pretty nice car." Alex agreed. Despite the fact that Sayle was a complete madman, he really did have good taste in cars.

"Pretty nice? I bet it was brilliant!"

** cruised down the motorway, travelling south. Alex was sitting in the front passenger seat, with so much soft leather**

"I love leather seats." Eagle smiled.

"Me too." Alex agreed. That definitely had been a highlight of the car ride.

** around him that he could barely hear the 389-horsepower, 6-litre engine**

"You sure know your cars, don't you, Cub?" Wolf chuckled.

"I find them a lot more interesting than near death experiences." Alex said, causing a silence to fall over the room.

** that was carrying him towards the Sayle complex near Port Tallon, Cornwall. But at eighty miles per hour, the engine was only idling.**

"I'd love to take that baby full speed." Eagle said wistfully.

** Alex could feel the power of the car. One hundred thousand pounds' worth of German engineering.**

"This is rather unfair." Snake grumbled. He wished he could have been in that car. Despite their appearances the whole of K-Unit really were car geeks at heart.

** One touch from the thin, unsmiling chauffeur and the Mercedes would leap forward.**

"You'd think he would be a bit happier about driving such a good car." Ben frowned.

"He had to deal with Cub here. That would cause anyone distress." Eagle joked.

"Hey!" Alex yelled indignantly, punching Eagle squarely on the arm, hiding a grin when Eagle rubbed it slightly.

** This was a car that sneered at speed limits. **

Eagle snorted slightly imagining the car sneering at the signs. Even flipping off the 30 mph sign, although how a car could do that with no hands was beyond him.

**Alex had been collected that morning from a converted church in Hampstead, north London. This was where Felix Lester lived.**

"Nice house?" Ben asked.

"Very."

** When the driver had arrived, Alex had been waiting with his luggage and there'd even been a woman - an MI6 operative - kissing him, telling him to clean his teeth, waving** **goodbye.**

"It was strange, but nice." Alex admitted.

"Nice?" Ben asked.

"Jack was never very motherly, and I never really knew my own mother." Alex said, looking down.

He didn't see the sad glances the men exchanged.

** As far as the driver was concerned, Alex was Felix.**

"Hopefully as far as everyone else is concerned too." Ben said.

** That morning Alex had read through the file and knew that Felix Lester went to a school called St. Anthony's,**

"Fancy." Eagle muttered.

"You went there?" Ben asked.

"No, but it starts with St. so it must be." Eagle said, using some sort of logic foreign to those who are sane.

** had two sisters**

"Poor bloke." Wolf grinned.

** and a pet Labrador.**

"I've always wanted a dog." Alex sighed.

** His father was an architect. His mother designed jewellery.**

"Happy family." Ben snorted.

** A happy family - _his _family if anybody asked. **

"Why would they? 'Excuse me but is that family really yours?'" Eagle said in a high voice.

**"How far is Port Tallon?" he asked.**

**So far the driver had barely spoken a word.**

"Must have been a great journey." Eagle said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

** He answered Alex without looking at him. "A few hours. You want some music?" **

"He actually offered you music?" Wolf asked.

"I think he had orders to make sure that my journey was as comfortable as possible." Alex muttered.

**"Got any John Lennon?"**

"I wouldn't have took you for the John Lennon type." Ben said, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm not. However, Felix is apparently." Alex explained.

** That wasn't his choice. According to the file, Felix Lester liked John Lennon. **

"It must be awful, having to make all your decisions based on someone else's preferences." Snake said.

"It is." Alex and Ben said together, before smiling slightly.

**"No."**

"Apparently it's not his choice either." Eagle said.

**"Forget it. I'll get some sleep."**

**He needed the sleep. He was still exhausted from the training**

"That wasn't well thought out on MI6's part, they should have let you rest a little before sending you in." Ben sighed.

** and wondered how he would explain all the half-healed cuts and bruises**

"That could cause some trouble." Wolf frowned.

** if anyone saw under his shirt. Maybe he'd tell them he got bullied at** **school.**

"That may work." Wolf nodded thoughtfully.

** He closed his eyes and allowed the leather to suck him into sleep. **

"You're lucky you can fall asleep that fast, takes me ages." Snake grumbled.

"I can't now." Alex said too quietly for anyone to hear.

**It was the feeling of the car slowing down that woke him.**

"Good instincts. Once I'm asleep, nothing wakes me up." Eagle smirked.

"Well it also helped that the driver braked quite abruptly; he forgot all about speed limits." Alex chuckled.

** He opened his eyes and saw a fishing village, the blue sea beyond, a swathe of rolling green hills and a cloudless sky.**

"Sounds wonderful." Wolf said acerbically.

"It actually was rather pretty." Alex said.

** It was a picture off a jigsaw puzzle, or perhaps a holiday brochure advertising a forgotten England.**

"Fake." Snake snorted.

"Yeah, those holiday brochures make places look way better than they actually are." Wolf said bitterly.

Alex laughed, "I sense a story."

"I was booking a holiday for my girlfriend and myself and I saw a really lovely looking place. It was a nice hotel, private pool, some nice attractions nearby, of course. However, when we got there it was awful, the hotel looked ancient and the pool water was green. It took at least an hour to get to a small shop."

Alex laughed at the look on Wolf's face.

** Seagulls swooped and cried overhead. An old tug - tangled nets, smoke and flaking paint - pulled into the quay.**

"Fishermen off to work." Eagle said merrily, earning a few odd looks.

** A few locals, fishermen and their wives, stood around, watching. It was about five o'clock in the afternoon**

"Or coming home." Eagle said, slightly less happily.

** and the village was caught in the silvery, fragile light that comes at the end of a perfect day. **

"This doesn't seem to be good, everything is _too_ perfect." Ben frowned.

**"Port Tallon," the driver said. He must have noticed Alex opening his eyes.**

**"It's pretty."**

**"Not if you're a fish." **

"Cheerful bloke."

**They drove round the edge of the village and back inland, down a lane that twisted between strangely bumpy fields.**

"They're not strange, the reason they're bumpy is because in-"

"Save the geography lesson for later Foxy, we're reading." Eagle said, cutting off Ben.

** Alex saw the ruins of buildings, half-crumbling chimneys and rusting metal wheels, and knew that he was looking at an old tin mine. They'd mined tin in Cornwall for three thousand years until one day the tin had run out. Now all that was left were the holes. **

"It's rather sad, if they'd been a bit more careful and hadn't been so greedy, perhaps they'd still be mining it." Alex murmured.

**A couple of kilometres down the lane a linked metal fence sprang up.**

"Rather out of place in the nice scenery." Wolf said.

** It was brand-new, ten metres high, topped with razor wire.**

"You'd think they don't want visitors." Snake said wryly.

** Arc lamps on scaffolding towers stood at regular intervals and there were huge signs, red on white.**

_Red signifies danger, _Alex thought wildly.

** You could have read them from the next country.**

**SAYLE  
><em>Enterprises<br>_STRICTLY PRIVATE  
><strong>

**"Trespassers will be shot," Alex muttered to himself.**

"Pleasant thought." Wolf snorted.

** He remembered what Mrs Jones had told him. _He's more or less got his own private army. He's acting as if he's got something to hide. _Well, that was certainly his own first impression.**

"I would get out if there Cub. I don't have a good feeling about all of this." Snake frowned.

** The whole complex was somehow shocking, alien to the sloping hills and fields. **

"Completely."

**The car reached the main gate, where there was a security cabin and an electronic barrier.**

"Do you think they have enough security?" Wolf asked in mock concern.

"I'm not too sure." Ben said solemnly.

** A guard in a blue and grey uniform with **SE **printed on his jacket waved them through.**

"Just like that?" Eagle asked in shock.

** The barrier lifted automatically. And then they were following a long, straight road over a stretch of land that had somehow been hammered flat, with an on one side and a cluster of four high-tech buildings on the other. The buildings were large, smoked glass and steel, each one joined to the next by a covered walkway. There were two aircraft next to the landing-strip. A helicopter and a small cargo plane. Alex was impressed. The whole complex must have been about five kilometres square. It was quite an operation. **

"It does sound rather impressive when you put it like that." Eagle conceded.

**The Mercedes came to a roundabout with a fountain at the centre, swept round it and continued up towards a fantastic, sprawling house. It was Victorian, red brick topped with copper domes and spires that had long ago turned green. There must have been at least sixty windows on the first five floors facing the drive. It was a house that just didn't know when to stop. **

Wolf snorted slightly.

**The Mercedes pulled up at the main entrance and the driver got out. "Follow me." **

"He is quite rude." Ben frowned.

**"What about my luggage?" Alex asked.**

**"It'll be brought." **

"After being thoroughly checked of course." Snake said.

"Of course." Wolf repeated.

**Alex and the driver went through the front door and into a hall dominated by a huge canvas - Judgement Day, the end of the world, painted four centuries ago as a swirling mass of doomed souls and demons.**

"Sounds like a cheery place." Eagle snorted.

** There were works of art everywhere. Watercolours and oils, prints, drawings, sculptures in stone and bronze, all crowded together with nowhere for the eye to rest.**

"Some people just have _too _much money, it's unfortunate." Eagle muttered.

** Alex followed the driver along a carpet so think he almost bounced. He was beginning to feel claustrophobic and was relieved when they passed through a door and into a vast room that was practically bare. **

"Bloke sounds a bit bipolar." Eagle muttered.

**"Mr Sayle will be here shortly," the driver said, and left.**

**Alex looked around him. This was a modern room with a curving steel desk near the centre, carefully positioned halogen lights and a spiral staircase leading down from a perfect circle cut in the ceiling high above. One entire wall consisted of a single sheet of glass and, walking over to it, Alex realised that he was looking at a gigantic aquarium.**

"He has a giant aquarium?" Wolf asked. "Why?"

"Because, he's creepy, and evil, and cruel, and twisted." Alex muttered.

** The sheer size of the thing drew him towards it. It was hard to imagine how many thousands of litres the glass held back, but he was surprised to see it was empty. There were no fish, although it was big enough to hold a shark.**

"Why have an empty tank?" Eagle asked.

**And then something moved in the turquoise shadows and Alex gasped with a mixture of horror and wonderment as the biggest jellyfish he had ever seen drifted into view.**

"A jellyfish?" Ben snorted.

Alex shivered lightly, not just any jellyfish.

"Are you alright, Cub?" Snake frowned.

"Yeah, I just don't really like jellyfish." Alex said.

** The main body was a shimmering, pulsating mass of white and mauve, shaped roughly like a cone. Beneath it, a mass of tentacles covered with circular stingers twisted in the water, at least ten metres long.**

"It sounds dangerous." Eagle commented.

"It is."

No one asked how Alex knew this, but they all exchanged cautious glances. The young spy seemed very nervous, and they wondered if they were missing something important.

** As the jellyfish moved, or drifted in an artificial current, its tentacles writhed against the glass so that it looked almost as if it was trying to break out.**

Alex shivered, that was too much imagery. Flashes of his time in the tank overcame him, but he managed to regain his stoic expression before he was seen.

** It was the single most awesome and repulsive think Alex had ever seen. **

"It's not awesome at all." Eagle said, looking rather pale. Alex agreed.

**"_Physalia physalis." _The voice came from behind him and Alex twisted round to see a man coming down the last of the stairs. **

"Sayle?" asked Wolf.

"Sayle." Alex confirmed.

"Finally, took his bloody time."

**Herod Sayle was short.**

"That's the first thing you noticed?" Snake chuckled.

"He was, he was almost the same height as me!"

** He was so short that Alex's first impression was that he was looking at a reflection that had somehow been distorted. In his immaculate and expensive black suit, with gold signet-ring and brightly polished black shoes, he looked like a scaled-down model of a multi-millionaire business man.**

"He's definitely not _short _of cash." Eagle chuckled.

** His skin was very dark, so that his teeth flashed when he smiled. He had a round, bald head and very horrible eyes.**

"Ugly eyes? I take it you dislike this man." Ben sniggered.

"With a passion."

** The grey irises were too small, completely surrounded by white. Alex was reminded of tadpoles before they hatch. When Sayle stood next to him, the eyes were almost at the same level as his and held less warmth than the jellyfish. **

"Who was taller?" Eagle asked.

"He was, but only slightly."

**"The Portuguese man-o'-war," Sayle continued. He had a heavy accent brought with him from the Beirut marketplace. "It's beautiful, don't you think?" **

"No it's not, and you're a raving lunatic." Eagle muttered.

**"I wouldn't keep one as a pet," Alex said. **

"Amen." Eagle whispered.

"Ignore him, he's been bitter ever since he got stung at the beach."

**"I came upon this one when I was diving in the South China Sea." Sayle gestured at a glass display case and Alex noticed three harpoon guns and a collection of knives resting in velvet slots. "I love to kill fish,"**

"He loves to kill _fish_?" Snake said. "I mean fox hunting and deer hunting, I've heard of, even whale hunting. But fish hunting? '_Oh no, it's a trout!'"_

** Sayle went on. "But when I saw this specimen of _Physalia physalis, _I knew I had to capture it and keep it. You see, it reminds me of myself."**

**"It's ninety-nine per cent water. It has no brain, no guts and no anus."**

Ben laughed so hard he could barely breathe, "you're a nutter, Alex."

"He's going to kill you, you're dead." Snake gaped.

** Alex had dredged up the facts from somewhere and spoken them before he knew what he was doing. **

"Teenagers, should not be spies." Wolf muttered.

**Sayle glanced at him, then turned back to the creature hovering over him in its tank. "It's an outsider," he said. "It drifts on its own, ignored by the other fish. It is silent and yet demands respect. You see the nematocysts, Mr Lester? The stinging cells? If you were to find yourself wrapped in those,it would be an exquisite death." **

"Stunningly exquisite."

**"Call me Alex," Alex said. **

"Oh hell." Wolf cursed. "What did you say that for?"

**He'd meant to say Felix, but somehow it had slipped out. It was the most stupid, the most amateurish mistake he could have made.**

"You are an amateur though, Alex. Despite what you been through, you're a teenager." It wasn't condescending, there was a painful truth in Ben's statement.

** But he had been thrown by the way Sayle had appeared and by the slow, hypnotic dance of the jellyfish.**

**"The grey eyes squirmed."I thought your name was Felix."**

**"My friends call me Alex."**

**"Why?"**

**"After Alex Ferguson. I'm a big fan of Manchester United." It was the first thing Alex could think of. But he'd seen a football poster in Felix Lester's bedroom and knew that at least he'd chosen the right team. **

"Did you pull it off?"

**Sayle smiled. "That's most amusing. Alex it shall I hope we will be friends, Alex. You are a very lucky boy. You won the competition and you are going to be the first teenager to try out my Stormbreaker. But this is also lucky, I think, for me. I want you to tell me what you think of it. I want you to tell me what you like ... what you don't." The eyes dipped away and suddenly he was business-like. "We only have three days until the launch," he said. "We'd better get a _bliddy _move on, as my father used to say. I'll have my man take you to your room and tomorrow morning, first thing, you must get to work. There's a maths program you should try ... also languages. All software was developed here at Sayle Enterprises. Of course, we've talked to children. We've gone to teachers, to education experts. But you my dear ... Alex. You will be worth more to me than all that put together." **

"Worth so _so _much more." Eagle chuckled. "Ickle Cubby?"

"Shut up, Eagle."

**As he talked, Sayle had become more and more animated, carried away by his own enthusiasm. He had become a completely different man. Alex had to admit that he'd taken an immediate dislike to Herod Sayle. No wonder Blunt and the people at MI6 mistrusted him! But now he was forced to think again. He was standing opposite one of the richest men in England, a man who had decided, out of the goodness of his heart, to give a huge gift to the British schools. **

"Don't do it." Wolf warned.

"Do what?" Alex asked bewildered.

"All madman seem sane, when they're talking about something as crazy as themselves. Don't believe that he's sane."

**Just because he was small and slimy, that didn't necessarily make him an enemy. Perhaps Bunt was wrong after all. **

"Follow your instincts, Alex." Ben said.

**"Ah! Here's my man now," Sayle said. "And about _bliddy _time!" **

"Aw, was his man running late?" Eagle said acerbically.

**The door had opened and a man had come in, dressed in the black suit and tails of an old-fashioned butler. He was as tall and thin as his master was short and round,with a thatch of ginger hair above a face so pale it was almost paper white.**

"That is not normal." Snake muttered.

** From a distance it looked as if he was smiling, but as he drew closer Alex gasped. The man had two horrendous scars, one on each side of his mouth, twisting all the way up to his ears.**

"Sounds like a real charmer." Ben said.

** It was as if someone had attempted to cut his face in half.**

"Inventive." Wolf said.

** The scars were a gruesome shade of mauve.**

"What the hell colour is mauve?" Eagle said.

"I think it's purple." Snake said.

"Then why not say purple?" Ben asked.

"I don't know, does it really matter what colour his scars are?" Alex said.

** The were smaller, fainter scars where his cheeks had once been stitched. **

"Were they mauve too?" Eagle asked.

"Does it matter?"

**"This is Mr Grin," Sayle said. "He changed his name after his accident." **

"He has a sense of humour then?" Snake asked.

Alex just shook his head.

**"Accident?" Alex found it hard not to stare at the terrible wounds.**

**"Mr Grin used to work in a circus. It was a novelty knife-throwing act. For the climax he used to catch a spinning knife between his teeth, but then one night his elderly mother came to see the show. She waved to him from the front row and he got his timing wrong. He's worked for me for a dozen years now and although his appearance may be displeasing, he is loyal and efficient. Don't try to talk with him, by the way. He has no tongue." **

"Well..." Ben trailed off lost for words.

"Poor woman." Eagle sighed. "Having to witness that happen to your son must be awful."

**"Eeeurgh!" Mr Grin said.**

**"Nice to meet you," Alex muttered.**

"If you say so."

**"Take him to the blue room," Sayle commanded. He turned to Alex."You're fortunate that one of our nicest rooms has come up free - here, in the house. We had a security man staying there. But he left us quite suddenly." **

"Oh." Ben said, understanding who the security man was. "That must've been tough."

**"Oh? Why was that?" Alex asked casually.**

**"I have no idea. One moment he was here, the next he was gone." Sayle smiled again. "I hope you won't do the same, Alex."**

"That sounds like a threat." Snake said.

**"Ri ... wurgh!" Mr Grin gestured at the door and, leaving Herod Sayle standing in front of his huge captive, Alex left the room. **

"That sounded very similar to 'Rider'." Eagle said.

"I think he was trying to say 'Right this way'." Alex said.

"Nope it sounded like Rider."

**He was led along a passage past more works of art, up a staircase and then along a wide corridor with thick wood-panelled doors and chandeliers. Alex assumed that the main house was used for entertaining. Sayle himself must live here. But the computers would be constructed in the modern buildings he had seen opposite the airstrip. Presumably he would be taken there tomorrow. **

"You should leave, it doesn't seem right."

**His room was at the far end. It was a large room with a four poster bed and a window looking out on to the fountain. Darkness has fallen and the water, cascading ten metres through the air over a semi-naked statue that looked remarkably Herod Sayle was illuminated by a dozen concealed lights. Next to the window was a table with an evening meal already laid out for him: ham, cheese, salad. His bag was lying on the bed. **

"They probably searched it thoroughly." Ben said.

**He went over to it - a Nike sports bag - and examined it. When he had closed it up, he had inserted three hairs into the zip, trapping them in the metal teeth. They were no longer there.**

"Good technique, Cub." Wolf praised.

** Alex opened the bag and went through it. Everything was exactly as it had been when he had packed, but he was certain that the sports bag had been expertly and methodically searched. **

"Without a doubt."

**He took out the Game Boy Colour, inserted the Speed Wars cartridge and pressed the START button three times. At once the screen lit up with a green rectangle the same shape as the room. He lifted the Game Boy up and swung it around him, following the line of the walls. A red flashing dot suddenly appeared on the screen.**

"They bugged the room?" Snake asked.

"Is it really a surprise?" Alex said.

"No, but you were fourteen."

"So?"

** He walked forward holding the game boy in front of him. The dot flashed faster, more intensely. He had reached a picture, hanging next to the bathroom, a squiggle of colours that looked suspiciously like Picasso. He put the Game Boy down and carefully lifted the canvas off the wall.**

"You should wear gloves while dealing with original artwork." Ben said.

"Unfortunately, I didn't care."

** The bug was taped behind it, a black disc about the size of a ten pence piece. Alex looked at it for a minute, wondering why it was there. Security? Or was Sayle such a control freak that he had to know what his guests were doing every minute of the day and night? **

"I reckon it's a bit of both." Wolf said,

**Alex put the picture back. There was only one bug in the room. The bathroom was clean. **

"Good, that would have just been plain creepy." Eagle said.

**He ate his dinner, showered and got ready for bed. As he passed the window, he noticed activity in the grounds near the fountain. There were lights shining out of the modern buildings. Three men, all dressed in white overalls, were driving towards the house in an open-top jeep. Two more men walked past. These were security guards, dressed in the same uniform as the man at the gate. They were both carrying semi-automatic machine-guns. Not just a private army, but a well-armed one. **

Alex shuddered, remembering the sniper.

**He got into bed. The last person who had slept here had been his uncle, Ian Rider. Had he seen something, looking out of the window? Had he heard something? What could have happened that meant he had to die?**

**Sleep took a long time coming to the dead man's bed. **

"Morbid." Eagle said.

"That's the chapter done."

"Great, I'll read next." Ben said, taking the book from Alex.

* * *

><p><em>AN<em>

_I do not own Alex Rider._

_Thank you for reading, let me know what you think_

_I am really sorry about the lack of updates, but I do have a very good reason, I promise. I have a strict schedule and my computer time(lazy time)is short as I am training for the RAF, I'm applying soon, wish me luck!_


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